Age catches up with everyone, even a gang of elderly robbery specialists in Italy who were determined not to let a prostate problem for one of them foil their latest plans.

Their discussions, as overheard by the Italian police via wiretaps, could have come from a movie script for a comedy heist blockbuster called Octogenarian’s Eleven: A gang member needs prostate surgery. His fearsome leader will not allow it. He whines about it to his compatriots, who try to find another role for him because the prostate problem makes it hard for him to ride a scooter.

The group was known to carry out armed burglaries at post offices in Rome, the Guardian reported.

Its leaders were 70-year-old Italo De Witt, known as “the German”, and 74-year-old Raniero Pula.

The other members were 67-year-old Sandro Baruzzo, who would obtain replicas of keys to targeted post offices, and a 68-year-old who was allegedly the main person carrying out the crime. There were also two masons in their early 50s who drilled holes in the walls to facilitate access for the thieves.

In early May 2023, the gang made off with some 200,000 euros (S$290,000) from a post office in Rome’s San Giovanni’s district. In that incident, two armed members of the group threatened an employee who was loading an ATM.

Another robbery was planned a few weeks later in another Roman neighbourhood, La Repubblica newspaper reported.

But there was a problem: Baruzzo was suffering from incontinence and required an operation.

According to a series of wiretaps from police investigation documents that La Repubblica quoted from in its report on Feb 18, De Witt would not let Baruzzo have the operation.

De Witt was apparently feared even by his own associates. He became renowned in the mid-1990s after an armed bank robbery near Rome’s Spanish Steps, a tourist site.

Baruzzo complained to other members in the group about De Witt, and insisted he needed to have the operation.

“I can’t even get on the scooter,” Baruzzo reportedly said to Pula on July 17, 2023.

Baruzzo’s health made the others anxious because of how the robbery was to be executed. At one point, De Witt considered replacing Baruzzo.

According to their plans subsequently, Baruzzo was to hide in a warehouse adjacent to the targeted post office, possibly as a lookout.

Despite their concerns and Baruzzo’s health, the planned robbery took place on Nov 6, 2023.

But it failed. The police, who had been tracking the group since the May incident, intercepted them before they got to the loot.

De Witt, Pula and Baruzzo were charged with armed robbery and sentenced in November 2023 to at least four years in prison. The other three, according to La Repubblica, “were obliged to report to the police”.