words by Carol King
A man has been arrested after firing shots where the popular Italian TV series Commissario Montalbano (Inspector Montalbano) is filmed.
Police arrested the 30-year-old man, who is suspected of firing several shots earlier this summer on the set where the TV show is filmed in Ragusa, Sicily. They also seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle and ammunition.
Shots rang out behind the house in Punta Secca that is used as the Italian sleuth’s home in the RAI series. Reports suggest that the targets were a restaurant behind the building and a nearby timber yard. After months of investigation worthy of the fictional detective, local police tracked down the shooter, who was caught on film by a video surveillance camera.
The accused’s motives are suspected to be linked to online gambling and betting. He is being charged with possessing weapons and making aggravated threats.
Salvo Montalbano is the creation of award-winning Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri. Montalbano’s seaside home also comes under siege in the ongoing crime series after he finds a horse’s cadaver on the beach below his terrace in the 12th novel, La pista di sabbia (The Track of Sand). In a strange twist of fate whereby real life mirrors fiction, the detective then investigates the murky world of illegal gambling.
