The mysterious “Fleximan” has a face .
The Carabinieri of Adria and the Rovigo mobile radio operations unit have reported a 42-year-old man, a "known subject" resident in Polesine but born in Padua. According to investigators, he is the self-proclaimed avenger of motorists harassed by speed cameras , almost certainly emulated by other followers and not only in Veneto.
The man under investigation is called Enrico Mantoan, he is a 42-year-old metalworker and is currently suspected of five incidents out of a total of at least fifteen.
His house was searched and items necessary for the investigation were seized and will be subjected to an appraisal. The crime of aggravated damage to property exposed by necessity or custom to the public eye and for interruption of public service is alleged against him.
The five damages occurred in the Polesine municipalities of Bosaro - twice, in May and July last year - Corbola and Taglio di Po, on the same day, on Christmas Eve, and Rosolina, on January 3rd.
Mantoan was framed by video surveillance cameras , but not only that. The police reached him also after other investigations into the places where the damage occurred, after complaints, reports and checks on telephone records and cells.
It is unlikely that the suspect is responsible for all the damage done by Fleximan in about a year. Three other prosecutors in Veneto are investigating: Belluno, Padua and Treviso.
The method of vandalism is the same: the pole supporting the camera is sawn at the base with the electric grinder - the flex - and left on the ground . In some episodes the author also left a flyer claiming responsibility.
Acts that aroused indignation among local administrators, but also online support from motorists allergic to the limits ; the Prosecutor of Treviso, Marco Martani, warned against certain forms of solidarity, which could also constitute a complaint for condoning a crime. The "avengers" of the speed camera also invaded Lombardy, where the pole was found knocked down and thrown into an embankment in the province of Bergamo, on state road 42 in Albano Sant'Alessandro. In Piedmont, however, the copycat was caught and reported premises of the Venetian saboteur, a 50-year-old who allegedly uprooted, in the night between 11 and 12 November, two speed detection columns along the state road 337 of Val Vigezzo, in the municipality of Druogno.
Mantoan is a maintenance worker for a company that builds gas systems. "If they are roses they will bloom, if they are velox... They will cut" , he wrote on Facebook. He was also provincial secretary of Forza Nuova . "For the moment he is only under investigation, we await the development of the investigations and we will evaluate every initiative", his lawyer Giorgia Furlanetto limited himself to saying.
(Unioneonline/L)