An email mistakenly sent to police in Verona, N.J., instead of in Verona, Italy, caused police here to help the depressed international student.
VERONA -- A case of mistaken "municipal" identity resulted in the township police department helping save the life of a suicidal student in Verona, Italy last week, a report says.
Police chief Mitchell Stern told BuzzFeed News that he got an email Thursday from a Chinese student in the U.K. who said another Chinese student in Verona, Italy, had threatened to kill herself.
The student in the U.K. had accidentally emailed the Verona, N.J., police, instead of the Verona, Italy, police, according to the BuzzFeed report.
Stern could not find a website for the Verona police in Italy, so he contacted INTERPOL, which reached out to the Italian state police, the report says.
The Italian police said in a Facebook post they had gone to the girl's apartment and found her alive, with her wrists partly severed and a bottle of anti-depressants next to her.
Stern told BuzzFeed the girl had been brought to a hospital and was in stable condition.
Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook.