Italian Burglar Says He Was Inspired by Hit Netflix Series 'Lupin' to Rob Church
A would-be thief in Italy cited the global smash hit Netflix series Lupin as the inspiration for his alleged crime.
Police in Monza, a town just outside of Milan in Northern Italy, arrested the man on Saturday night after his attempted robbery of a church oratory, The Guardian reported.
The man, who has not been identified publicly, donned a leather jacket as part of his attempt to emulate Netflix's gentleman thief and allegedly tried to make off with an orange soft drink and around 21 euros (or about $24) from the oratory's till.
The man reportedly explained to police that he had studied the actions and techniques of Lupin's main character Assane Diop, played by French actor Omar Sy, in preparation for his small-scale heist.
Once at the church, the man waited for the bells to ring so as to muffle the noise of him smashing through the oratory's glass door.
This broken glass would end up derailing the man's scheme. Due to a serious injury sustained while breaking the door, the man was forced to call for help. At first, he reportedly lied to authorities and made up a story about being attacked by a band of three robbers. Following this, however, he began to cry, explained what really happened, and made the connection to Lupin.
The Guardian also reported that the man may have robbed the same church a few years ago.
A French-language production, Lupin premiered on Netflix in January with a second season dropping in June. With 76 million views worldwide in its first month, the first season of Lupin became Netflix's most successful foreign-language original series and one of its biggest overall in any language. Its viewership numbers tied with the first season of The Witcher and bested other mega-hits like The Queen's Gambit, Tiger King, Stranger Things season 3, and another foreign language smash, Money Heist. In the wake of its success, the series has been renewed for a third season.
The story follows Diop, the French son of a Senegalese immigrant, who is inspired to pursue thievery by the classic literary character Arsène Lupin. Lupin was created by author Maurice Leblanc in 1905 and has appeared in 17 novels and 39 novellas over the decades.
In January, a group of thieves in Milan found more success than the Lupin-inspired man in carrying out robberies against several notable public figures before they were arrested. Dubbed the "acrobat thieves," the group monitored the movement and schedules of various celebrities and influencers in Milan on social media and used that information to plan their robberies, scaling apartment buildings and making off with thousands of euros worth of items.
