Venice hunts for ‘idiot’ who jumped off three-story building into canal

By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN

Italian authorities are searching for a man who jumped off a three-story building into a canal in Venice on Thursday.

Calling the man an “idiot”, Venice’s Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a Twitter post that he would give the man a “certificate of stupidity and a lot of kicks” for the act, which has gone viral on social media.

The mayor also added a video of the dive on his account, saying that the man and his accomplice who took the video will be arrested. In the video, the person, wearing only boxer shorts, can be seen jumping from a building rooftop into a canal, landing on his belly.

“We are trying to identify him, to report him, him and his buddy below who made the stupid video for social media,” Brugnaro said.

The mayor also said he sent police to the building to determine how the man was able to enter the private residential building and how he was able to get to the rooftop.

“He risked his life in that jump, but he is also a delinquent. They don’t understand the danger they create in this city. What if a boat would have been passing below?”

Brugnaro urged anyone who has seen the video to help identify the person — who he referred to as a tourist — but not to “like” the video on social media.

“They do these stupid things on social for the likes,” the mayor said, adding that “we will use the law to prosecute him.”

The jump is just the latest account of people behaving badly in Italy—especially those visiting.

Last year, more than 40 tourists were arrested for swimming (sometimes nude) in Venice canals and one man was arrested for surfing down the Grand Canal.

Elsewhere, an American tourist was fined for causing $25,000 worth of damage after throwing her e-scooter down the Spanish Steps in Rome. A Saudi tourist was fined after he drove a rented Maserati down the Spanish Steps.

Another tourist drove a car down the pedestrian only Ponte Vecchio in Florence and another took a joyride on a moped through the ruins of Pompeii.

Other tourists smashed statues in the Vatican museum.

Tourists have also been fined for carving initials in landmarks, stealing chunks of the colosseum in Rome and making off with everything from mosaics to fingers from the country’s world class monuments and museums.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.