Elderly Greek couple preferred to save their dog despite their golden jewels and money

It was early in the morning when Dimitris Karagounis - a retired engineer -went  to buy a newspaper as he does every day . He returned to his home in Holargos cutting off because he recently suffered a stroke.

Then the two thieves who were in the area spotted him and approached him. They were lying to be PPC technicians and there was a problem at  his home. He opened them and they came in

His mistake was that before he opened the door of his house he asked his wife Johana  to take their wild  dog to the balcony.

The two men asked the two elderly to move their refrigerator and snagged them back.

They were pretended to control household electrical appliances while entering the bedrooms and robbing all the money and jewelery. Their dog - Caesar - was barking and trying to save them but locked him out.

"I could put the dog in. He would save us for sure. But I was scared for a while, the thieves had a knife with them and they  would killed it . So I preferred to lose all my money and my goldfish despite my dog," said Mrs. Ioanna. "If they  killed my dog  I would feel remorse for all my life. I love him so much " she adds.

The thieves were as bad as they demanded and pay for their trouble. They asked 50 euro saying that they corrected the problem.

Eventually the thieves managed to make money and golds worth 20,000 euro. "We feel unsafe in our own home," they told me.

In recent times there have been many cases of aging victims being victimized by this method.

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Gang steals safe-boxes in Athens

It was 3 in the morning when a black car stopped in front of Giorgos Zarokostas' jeweler's shop in Piraeus. Inside, 7 men came out wearing white clothes and hoods. They turned down the store entrance, walked in, and stole two safe-boxes full of gold.

Five months later, the owners of the goldsmith shop lived the same nightmare. The same burglars returned to get what they left the first time.

 The neighbors who heard the loud noise and the alarm came out to the balconies and alerted the police. Police arrived in a few minutes. They chased the thieves them but they did not manage to conceive them.

Mr. Giorgos, the owner of the goldsmith's shop since 1960, can not hold back his tears.

 "Our  lives have been  destroyed" he told me 

His  daughter Maria  is also incapacitated. "We were corrupted," she tells me. "The damage we suffered is irreparable in the crisis"

A few hours after the thefts the cars of the burglars were found burned.

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Little children are begging at traffic lights in the streets of Athens

With my car I drive to the streets of Athens. Somewhere near an area called Keratsini  I stop at a traffic light. There comes a little girl and cleans my glass. I give her 1 euro. She smiles at me and  says "thank you". Then she goes to the next car. Beside her are  two more  young children.

I park the car , I  go down and approach them. I ask the kids their names . They are Katerina, Dimitris and Giorgos. When I tell them I'm a journalist, the two disappear. "We're afraid of the cameras. Our parents will ruin us " Only Dimitris is left. A beautiful brunette boy with a permissive look.



He tells me he cleans the car windows all day. "Where are your  parents ?" I ask him. "My parents are separated. My mother kept my 4 sisters at home. My father took me because  I am a boy and we live in the street. I clean the windows and with the money we get food because my father does not find a job ".




He asks me if I can help him get into a foundation. "I know a lot of kids who are in a foundation. There they will give me food, clothes and a soft bed. I will not sleep on the road. And I will not be so tired, "he tells me. "And I will probably see my mother more."




In the times of  economic crisis  in Greece  the  children  who work or beg are  unfortunately growing, while many are forced to leave school.

Thieves stole the car of a Greek MP

It was 9 in the morning when the policeman - guardian of the Greek MP Dimitris Kammenos arrived in the garage of the MP's house and looked for the car as he does every day. Once he found out that the car was not in it`s position he contacted the MP and asked him if he took the car to drive it. The MP did not know anything. The car was stolen ....

As Dimitris Kammenos told me in the last few days the garage door was damaged.

Ηis car was not the only one that came to the thieves' target. Lately there are many car thefts in Paleo Faliro.

In the case of the MP, the car will be replaced by the Greek Parliament in a week, but thiw does not happen for ordinary citizens. Like Vaggelis Demiris. The thieves stole his car twice, causing him great financial damage.

The thieves steal the cars even at lunchtime, making the owners not to know if they will find thei cars at the point where they were parked.

18 year old student killed her baby and threw it into the rubbish

Horror is the news that a young student was the woman who gave birth to a baby, killed her and threw her into the garbage in her neighborhood in Petroupolis.

The details are horrifying. As he told police officers: "I went into the bathroom and my mother sat outside because we did not fit. He could not see what was going on like the door. I gave birth. I put the baby in the washbasin and that went to my chest and ate "

"After a while I heard the baby make some strange sounds. I saw blood and blood flowing from the nose and mouth, and he did not breathe. My mother told me that in the old days they put a little paper in the mouth of the child to pull the blood ... After I took the paper out of my mouth, I took a piece of cord I found in the bathroom and I tied it to his neck maybe annoyed and reacted. Then I called my mom to bring me another piece of paper and put it in his mouth. But he did not breathe again and left it as it was. "

Then, as she confessed, she asked her mother for a bag of garbage and then threw it into a bucket at the junction of Pindos and East Romylia streets, where it was later spotted by a picker.

Her brother bursts into sobs: "She did not say anything to me, I did not know she was pregnant, if I did not let her kill her"

The girl  claimed that she did not understand that she was pregnant and that she kept it secret because she feared the reactions of her relatives.

She was arrested along with her mother who was the one who threw the child in the trash.

As revealed when she was 16 years old she was pregnant again and she did  was abortions.

Greeks live as prisoners in their own home

The house of Giorgos Nikolakopoulos in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, resembles a fortress. All windows are enclosed with iron railings while on the balcony there is a wild dog barking to everyone. From the day the robbers entered his house, he tries to protect himself in whatever way he can. "Τhe only thing missing is to put a chain and to get hold of the railing" he  tells me

It was eight in the afternoon when the elderly man had climbed upstairs where his daughter is staying to keep his two young grandchildren. He heard the dog barking but did pay notice . When he  came down, the robbers had entered his house and stole money and gold.



It is not the only house  that has been the target of robbers. As the residents have told me lately, robberies have risen dramatically. Mainly because the area has many ways to escape from the National Road.


Dimitris Tsifis has been the victim of robbers 9 times. He placed rolls and alarms, but bandits always find a way to break it.



"We became Chicago," says an elderly woman who doubles in her home and shudders every time she hits the doorphone even if she is a young person who handles brochures.



What they are asking for is more policing

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Dangerous fugitives were arrested

For only 48 hours, two Albanian villains breathed  the air of freedom . They escaped 2 days ago d uring their transfer to the port of Piraeus and they were arrested yesterday.  ,

The information that the two dangerous fugitives have found shelter in an appartment at  new Philadelfia  signaled a security alarm. Within a short time a huge business from the EKAM was set up.

Armed policemen arrived in the streets around the block of Adrianou street. 

They broke the door and surprised  the two Albanian villains who were unable to react even though they were heavily armed.

According to the police, the runaways were very dangerous as they are professional killers. One is a member of the Albanian Mafia and is known as "Niko". He is accused of 3 murders. In 2011, he had killed an 35year old Albanian and cutted  his 28-month-old son's neck in Messinia. "Niko" had an armed pistol under his pillow but did not  had the time to  use  it. When he realized they were surrounded by police officers, he tried to break him out of the back door and climb to the balcony on the upper floor where there was a woman with her toddler. But he did not get it.

Τhe other Albanian fugitive has also  been convicted for murders . The two runners were brought to justice. They appeared provocative as they said they would escape again

Police officers are investigating the conditions of escape but also if they have been helped by  Mafia's criminal organization.

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FEAR DOUBLE-LOCKS GREEKS IN THEIR HOUSES

When the sun sets, the fear reigns in neighborhoods of the center of Athens. The residents are being double-locked in their homes, do not open to anyone and do not go out without escort even if it is needed ... Mrs. Anna who lives near the police station of Agios Panteleimonas can not forget the day when a robber threw her violently down for to grab a bag with her purse and a box of sweets. Even if she is trying to  forget she  can not  because after the fall broke her hip and since then she is released with a cane ....


Mrs. Anastasia returned to her home in Victoria Square. She had put the key to the door when two men stroked her in the face and dragged her into her house and stole her money and gold. From that day he shakes from fear  every time he needs to get out



This elderly woman has often faced thieves who wanted to get into her house saying lying to them as electricians. "We are imprisoned," he told me

Thieves steal that they find in front of them. Bags, purses, mobile phones. Even stunning lights like they did at the entrance to the block of flats with this elderly concierge

Women working in the center of Athens can not work late because they are afraid. This woman always goes to work with her husband. Ηe leaves her at the door and returns in the afternoon and takes her.

Residents of the center of Athens are calling for more policing to feel safe again

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38-year-old Albanian shot 5 times in a barber shop in downtown Athens

It was one afternoon when the silence at Victoria Square interrupted 5 shots in Heyden Street. All the residents went out to see what was happening. The shots were heard from a barrel. A bloody man was on the ground.

The neighbors saw two men approaching the barber shop with one motorbike. Both had their faces covered. One went down, went into the barber shop and shot the 38-year-old Albanian. He then went running, went up to the motorbike  that his accomplice was waiting for and vanished at high speed.

Self-witnesses told me that there was also a policeman in the barber who cut his hair. He immediately pulled out his gun and chased the perpetrators.

Inside the salon at the time of the attack, there were 4 men but the actor shot only one thing that made the police investigate if they were personal disputes.Τhe owner of the barber told me he knew nothing. Τhe victim is still alive and hospitalized.

Residents of Victory Square are upset by the incident and ask the state for more policing

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Exarcheia citizens: Our neighborhood crime has increased

Exarcheia citizens in Athens have long complained that in their neighborhood crime has grown dramatically and are now afraid to get out of their homes and walk on the streets of the city

Their complaints had no effect, so they decided to ask for help from the courts. 400 inhabitants of the historic neighborhood signed a letter and sent it to the prosecutor. In their letter, they complain that drug trafficking, prostitution, robberies and murders are taking place next to their homes.

Residents also complain about the fact that the police do not go to the Exarcheia  even when residents call them because they need help. "If there is no policing, crime will increase  more " they say.

Afrer the letter of the indignant residents to the prosecutor, a search began.Watch my story here: 

http://www.alphatv.gr/news/society/prokatarktiki-exetasi-gia-ta-exarheia-apo-ton-proistameno-tis-eisaggelias-protodikon