'Fleximan': Hunt continues for Italy's anti-speed camera vigilante
Italian police are redoubling their efforts to hunt down a prolific speed trap vandal after the number of cameras targeted increased to 14 over the weekend.
The hunt continued for anti-speed camera vigilante 'Fleximan' in northern Italy on Monday after he struck again over the weekend, this time dismantling a camera along a regional highway in the town of Carceri, near Padua, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The unidentified man has been increasingly making headlines in recent weeks after he began cutting down speed traps across the northern Italian region of Veneto.
So-named by social media users for the use of his trademark flessibile, or circular saw, 'Fleximan' is also believed to have vandalised speed traps throughout nearby Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna by cutting down the metal poles used to support them.
However some of the 14 cameras he has targeted so far were taken out using explosives, one with a pellet gun, and another with an "agricultural vehicle", reported La Repubblica.
Police forces in the area were sifting through CCTV footage to identify the man. “I can’t make any predictions, but we’re at work,” the commander of Rovigo’s (Veneto) Carabinieri unit Edoardo Campora told reporters last week.
In the meantime, the anonymous vandal has become something of a hero on social media, where users have hailed him (or her) as a "hero" and "modern-day Robin Hood".
"Not all heroes have capes, some have the flessible," was the verdict of one Facebook user, according to the Corriere della Sera news daily.
"He should at least be paid for the fuel for his travels since he provides a service to everyone," wrote another.
Even Bolzano MEP Matteo Gazzini reportedly praised the acts as "a beautiful story of resistance to a hidden tax."
But Treviso prosector Marco Martani warned over the weekend that expressing approval or praise for the suspect's acts could amount to apology for a crime.
Another speed camera on State Road 42 outside Bergamo was found destroyed on Sunday morning, though it was unclear whether the act was performed by Fleximan or whether the vandal's notoriety had spawned a copycat, reported local paper L'Eco di Bergamo.
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The hunt continued for anti-speed camera vigilante 'Fleximan' in northern Italy on Monday after he struck again over the weekend, this time dismantling a camera along a regional highway in the town of Carceri, near Padua, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The unidentified man has been increasingly making headlines in recent weeks after he began cutting down speed traps across the northern Italian region of Veneto.
So-named by social media users for the use of his trademark flessibile, or circular saw, 'Fleximan' is also believed to have vandalised speed traps throughout nearby Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna by cutting down the metal poles used to support them.
However some of the 14 cameras he has targeted so far were taken out using explosives, one with a pellet gun, and another with an "agricultural vehicle", reported La Repubblica.
Police forces in the area were sifting through CCTV footage to identify the man. “I can’t make any predictions, but we’re at work,” the commander of Rovigo’s (Veneto) Carabinieri unit Edoardo Campora told reporters last week.
In the meantime, the anonymous vandal has become something of a hero on social media, where users have hailed him (or her) as a "hero" and "modern-day Robin Hood".
"Not all heroes have capes, some have the flessible," was the verdict of one Facebook user, according to the Corriere della Sera news daily.
"He should at least be paid for the fuel for his travels since he provides a service to everyone," wrote another.
Even Bolzano MEP Matteo Gazzini reportedly praised the acts as "a beautiful story of resistance to a hidden tax."
But Treviso prosector Marco Martani warned over the weekend that expressing approval or praise for the suspect's acts could amount to apology for a crime.
Another speed camera on State Road 42 outside Bergamo was found destroyed on Sunday morning, though it was unclear whether the act was performed by Fleximan or whether the vandal's notoriety had spawned a copycat, reported local paper L'Eco di Bergamo.
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