Italian job

Rome, May 3 (Reuters): A thief disguised as a security guard yesterday duped the unsuspecting staff of a top Italian art gallery into giving him more than 200,000 euros ($253,100), local media reported.

The thief showed up yesterday morning at the Pitti Palace in Florence, one of Italy’s best known museums, wearing the same uniform used by employees of the security firm which every day collects the institution’s takings.

After the cashier staff gave him three bags full of money, he signed a receipt and calmly walked out.

The robbery was only discovered 30 minutes later, when the real security guards turned up to collect the money.

Costly beer

Rome (Reuters): He had heard Rome was expensive but nothing prepared the Hong Kong tourist for a 990 euro ($1,251) beer. The unwary visitor received the bumper bar bill for a drink sipped near Rome’s most famous street, Via Veneto, where beers usually cost as much as 10 euros, Rome mayor’s office said. The tourist, who was travelling alone, was invited to the bar by a tout who served him a beer and then said it would cost him 990 euros. He bartered it down to 490 euros, but the bar owner ended up taking 990 euros off his credit card anyway.

Paris split

New York (AP): It’s apparently over for Paris Hilton and Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos. “So it would appear. Yes,” Hilton publicist Elliot Mintz said on Tuesday of the reported breakup. “I’m not going to deny that there was a split,” he said. Mintz would not provide further details. Hilton, 25, and Niarchos, 21, began dating last year. The hotel heiress and The Simple Life actress announced in October that she was ending her engagement to Paris Latsis, another Greek shipping heir.

Judge jinx

Manila (Reuters): A Philippine judge who claimed he could see into the future and admitted consulting imaginary mystic dwarfs has asked for his job back after being sacked by the country’s supreme court. “They should not have dismissed me for what I believed,” Florentino Floro, a trial judge in the capital’s Malabon northern suburb, said. Floro was sacked last month and fined 40,000 pesos ($780) after a probe found he was incompetent. He said three mystic dwarfs ? Armand, Luis and Angel ? helped him carry out healing sessions during breaks in his chambers.