West Frisian couple brutally robbed during Italian dream holiday

For the time being, the West Frisian Mandy Duijs no longer thinks about camping. Countless, long strokes in their inner and outer tent, presumably made with a knife, recall a fearful and abrupt end to what was supposed to be a dream vacation on Lake Como in Italy.

When Mandy wakes up on Thursday morning, she looks around in surprise. “I thought: the zipper is open and it looks like there is a tear in the inner tent.” Still half asleep, she wakes up her husband Peter. “Maybe he went to the toilet last night and something tore in the canvas, shot right through me.”

Everything messed up

But Peter didn’t go to the toilet at all that night, and when they look around the tent they make a terrible discovery. There are cracks everywhere in the tent, in both the inner and outer tent. Inside everything has been turned upside down and the belongings of the West Frisian couple are scattered throughout the tent.

“The tray in which we kept the shower coins and our car key and watches was also on the floor. We immediately ran to the car, which was still there. The key was on a car seat. We therefore think that they were mainly looking for cash and valuables.” Mandy and Peter were lucky that they had informed in advance whether they had to pay with cash at the campsite. “That often has to be done abroad, but it was not necessary here, so we had little cash with us.”

The valuables that were stolen also include two pairs of Peter’s shoes, his watch and a backpack belonging to the couple. “They left my driver’s license, passport and bank cards behind,” says Mandy.

The commotion also wakes camping neighbors. “Of course I was completely upset,” said Mandy. “The neighbors woke up around us and soon Belgian neighbors said to us: ‘you too?’. It then turned out that at least fifteen other campers had been robbed while they slept.”

Completely off the rails

The strange thing is that none of these robbed campers, in caravans, campers and tents, have noticed anything of the robbery. “Some have had the rubber removed from the windows to gain entry. We have had things removed that were close to our heads. Normally a zipper wakes me up. How is that possible? We suspect that we were intoxicated in some way, but we cannot prove that.”

Sleeping in the tent after the robbery was no longer an option for the couple. “We packed right away and spent a day relaxing in a hotel nearby. We were completely upset, we wanted to calm down before we drove back to the Netherlands.” Sleeping in the tent was also no longer possible. “Because of the cracks, the tent was leaking like a basket and it was going to rain,” says Mandy.

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Mandy and Peter are now fresh back in ‘t Veld, after having reported this to the Italian police: five days earlier than planned. They are relieved and happy to be back home, but whether the insurance will reimburse the things that thieves stole from their tent: that is still uncertain. The mental after-effects of the theft hurt the couple the most. “The fact that they’re right next to you and ripped the whole thing apart. They just don’t know what they’re doing to you.”

Don’t let it ruin it

What they especially want is to warn holidaymakers away. “Watch your stuff. Because even if they’re next to you, they can still reach it.” She prefers not to think about whether Mandy will ever step into a tent again.

“For the time being, I’m not going camping anymore. But yes: I’m saying that now, it’s still fresh. I don’t want my holidays to be ruined by this. Now let’s see what we get back from the insurance. Maybe we’ll do something completely different next year. But going out with this tent, that’s no longer possible anyway.”