Italian Bandits Make a Clean Getaway

Twenty bandits armed with pistols and machine guns raided a Colgate Palmolive factory Thursday and escaped with $740,000 worth of soap, toothpaste, bubble bath and shampoo, police and company officials said.

The bandits, who arrived with a dozen trucks to transport their loot, burst into the factory in this seaside city 35 miles south of Rome shortly after midnight, police said.

The bandits locked about 80 workers in a company truck and at gunpoint forced 20 other workers to load up the gang’s trucks with the toilet articles. The gang then forced the rest of the workers into the company truck and drove off, according to the police account.