A Naples scheme to give out plastic Rolexes to visiting luxury-watch wearers is already clocking up results.
The campaign "already appears to have brought down petty crime in Naples and surrounding areas, just a week after it was launched," said city police chief Oscar Fioriolli.
"Watch snatchers seem to have got the message that it's no longer wortwhile going for things on people's wrists," he added.
The Rolex scheme is part of a drive to bring down crime and revive Naples's spluttering tourist industry. Thousands of fake replicas of the status symbols have been commissioned from a local firm and strapped around the wrists of well-heeled guests before they take to the city's sometimes dangerous streets.
"I know it's a bit of an unorthodox move - and could raise a few giggles given Naples' reputation as a supposed capital for forged goods," said city tourism chief Marco Di Lello.
Prefect Renato Profili said: "We're ready to do what it takes to get this city firmly on the tourist map". The wristwatch initiative, which also involves a string of local towns, is part of a two-year drive to combat a plague of bag and watch snatching which has led island-bound tourists to give the former tourist mecca a wide berth.
