A robber with a shoe fetish has been arrested after a three-month rampage along the northwestern Italian coast.
The 27-year-old man, Maurizio Giusto, was stopped as he was about to pounce on a well-heeled lady on a Ligurian Riviera street.
Police said Giusto chose women with "shapely legs and dainty feet, wearing high heels".
"He seems to have a penchant for big platform heels," they said.
Police said Giusto "usually tried to get them to take off their shoes voluntarily, making up some excuse.
"But if they didn't fall for it, he grabbed their legs and pulled the shoes off before bagging them and running away".
Police found 200 shoes in Giusto's apartment.
Some of them were stolen on commission for other fetishists, he told police, while others were sold over the Internet - with a 50% premium on their shop price.
