Packing ham

It might be what the Wild West would have looked like, had the Wild West been set in Naples. A prosciutto-wielding desperado staring down the honest man, who’s reaching nervously for his ham. But it wasn’t the Wild West. Just a restaurant in Gloucester, MA, where owner Joe Scola was tending to customers when one of his waitresses came in from her break and asked, “Who’s that guy carrying the meat down the street?” That’s when Scola saw him: a figure clad in black, arms laden with Scola’s own goods.

Scola chased the man down and demanded answers. He told reporters that the thief, clutching a ham, two bags of linguiça and a prosciutto, said, “I’m really hungry, man.” Scola snatched back his linguiça and ham, at which point the thief raised the five-pound prosciutto above his head. But before he could work Scola over, Scola took action.

“I slammed him with the ham in the face,” Scola recounts. The man dropped his booty and fled.

Scola, who is known in the area for donating food to a local homeless shelter, says he was homeless once himself, but never stole. The suspect is still at large.

by Scott Saxon