Have you been robbed of a Rolex, a butterfly collection or a mammoth’s tooth? This guy may have it…

Luke Benedictus

If you’ve had a Rolex stolen in the last 20 years, Bologna police want to hear from you. That’s because there’s a chance you might finally be reunited. The police recently seized 100,000 items including diamonds, watches and necklaces from an Italian pensioner who had spent years buying and hoarding stolen goods. The Times reports that the haul included hundreds of Rolex watches that were scattered amid the epic stash of loot.

A team of investigators tracking burglars and pickpockets in Italy discovered that the criminals were selling their stolen wares to a 70-year-old man, who had turned his house into an “Aladdin’s cave of hot property worth €6 million”.

But the man wasn’t just a watch fan – he had extraordinarily broad tastes. The Times reports: “Searching through his overflowing apartment, police found gems, necklaces, brooches, rings, silver ingots, medals, rare coins, hundreds of watches — mainly Rolexes — cigarette cases, muskets, hipflasks, wartime uniforms, six boxes of fossils, a collection of mounted butterflies and a mammoth’s tooth.”

The items were found hidden in the man’s three beach houses with some of them uncovered in wall cavities or secreted in jars of hand cream. There was so much stolen gear that police needed a removal van to take it all away, with the entire haul weighing 1.5 tonnes.

Intriguingly, the man had no criminal record and led a respectable life, making no effort to sell the stolen goods on for a profit. Instead he’s simply been buying stolen goods from thieves across northern Italy for 20 years.

Bologna police have now photographed all the items and posted the images on a website divided into 24 categories and invited the public to call in if they spot a long-lost watch, necklace or mammoth’s tooth.

“We are having trouble finding the owners,” Roberto Pititto, head of the Bologna flying squad, told The Times.