About that document waiting for me at the office of the Carabinieri . . .

OK, I admit that I overdramatized a little on the post where I was called into the police office at the airport in Roma. This week I went to the Carabinieri office in Altopascio to pick up the document that the police told me was waiting for me there.

More overdramatizing.

Commandante Ratta—a really nice guy—remembers me, not surprising since I’ve filed three denuncie in the past couple of years regarding cases of identity theft. I didn’t understand the document he gave me, nor his explanation of what it was. I only got the idea that it was not particularly important and that I had 20 days to write something to the Tribunale of Cremona. So much for my years of studying Italian. But today I ran it through Google translate, and now I understand.

It is written in Italian legalese, and fortunately Google speaks that dialect better than I do. It basically says that I can request to see documents related to the investigation of the false Paul Robert Spadoni who lives in Cremona. The document is in response to two very detailed emails I had sent to the Carabinieri last October. I did not post anything about these emails on my blog because I didn’t want to tip off the imposter, who may be reading my blog.

Some background: The fake Paul Spadoni had used my ID to run up a huge gas bill in Cremona with a company called Simecom. The lawyers for Simecom found me in Montecarlo and froze my bank account. I got a copy of the gas contract and obtained the services of a handwriting expert, who declared the signatures to be false. Simecom eventually released my bank account. End of story? Not exactly.

I had assumed that the imposter must have moved away after this incident. After all, couldn’t Simecom have just sent the police to his address to nab him otherwise. But no, last fall I started receiving gas bills from another utility company, Hera, for Paul Robert Spadoni, at the exact same Cremona address. He didn’t move. He just switched providers. The only good news was that he seemed to be paying the bills, because when I received the second bill, it indicated that the earlier bill had been paid.

That’s when I filed the third denuncia with the Altopascio Carabinieri, but I wasn’t satisfied that this was enough. I sent a very detailed email to the Cremona Carabinieri as well as the regional Carabinieri office, explaining what was going on. I included a copy of the denuncia and the bills from Hera, along with all my identification papers and an explanation that I lived in Montecarlo and had no connection to a house in Cremona, nor with the companies Hera or Simecom.

So what has happened since? Well, back to the document I received this week. Google translate gave me this: “Spadoni Paul Robert (with my date and place of birth and current address listed) as a person offended by the aforementioned crime who on 10/1/2022 (Jan. 10) submitted to the Judge for preliminary investigations in the office, a request for archiving, with warning that within twenty days from the notification of this notice he has the right to view the documents and submit an opposition with a reasoned request to continue the preliminary investigations. Send to the Secretariat for the fulfillment of competence.”

I believe this means that I can write to the Tribunal of Cremona and request to see the documents that have been filed concerning their investigation—which I will do. I would love to hear that my fake alter ego has been made to suffer for his crimes. I’m not sure that will happen, nor that I will actually get any useful information from the Tribunal, but we shall see.

Meanwhile, now that I’m back in Montecarlo, only one piece of mail was waiting for me from Hera—a bill sent Nov. 11 notifying me that I had an overdue payment of 16.75 euro for my residence in Cremona. However, the good news is that this is the only letter I received from Hera in my absence. Five months have passed, with no more notices, so I am assuming that Hera got the message that I am not liable for the Cremona gas bills. In fact, the emails I sent to the Carabinieri were also cc’ed to Hera and Simecom. I even wrote a separate letter to the Simecom lawyer, saying that the fake Paul Spadoni is still living at the same address, so go hound him there for the 3,000-some euro that he owes.

So, worst case scenario seems to be that I am off the hook for the gas bills from Hera. Best case is that the faker is being prosecuted and will be punished. I suppose I could be worried that he will get off the hook and then continue to give me problems in some other way, but I’m not a person prone to anxiety. As the Lord said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”