Bandits Take $80,000 From Vatican Courier
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ROME — Bandits on motor scooters blocked a car driven by a Vatican money courier and fled with the equivalent of about $80,000 in cash Thursday, police said.
The courier, Cristiano Codato, a cashier for the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Churches, had just withdrawn $40,000 in U.S. currency, $40,000 in Italian lire and about $200,000 in checks from the Vatican Bank.
Several blocks away from the Vatican, two men on scooters blocked his car. Codato knocked one of them down with the car, but the other man smashed a rear window and snatched a briefcase containing the money.
The men managed to escape before police arrived. It was not immediately clear how the bandits knew Codato had been to the bank, which is well inside Vatican City walls. The offices of the congregation are outside the walls.
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