It came as it has been expected. An alarming level of crime in the streets and households of Athenians. Daily are the news of burglars and robbers who don’t even step back from using Kalashnikov automatic rifles and knives to scare to death seniors, rape mothers and steal from a couple of thousands euros, laptops and mobile phones, down to a few euro or a golden neck chain with a cross. Often the victim of the crime has to pay with his/her own life… On a single night, in the dark hours from Sunday to Monday, police recorded four cases of burglaries against seniors, several robberies in a flower shop, a gasoline station, a candy shop, a kiosk, and two against taxi drivers. An elderly man and his dog were even slaughtered by the criminals.
Last week a criminal gang entered a house and raped the mother of two minor children before empty the house of everything with a value.
My own aunt narrowly escaped a robbery incident when she neared the big-chain super market of her neighborhood. She saw lots of police and when she asked ‘what’s going on?’ the answer was: “Robbers with Kalashnikov entered the supermarket, ordered everyone down and threw some bags to cashiers”. The robbers escaped before police arrived. Now there are motorcycled policemen guarding the super-market, but the concerned customers wonder for how long. And my aunt, 75, thinks twice before she makes her way to buy her groceries.
The most bold robbery occurred on Sunday at the Athens airport. A robber entered the Alpha bank branch claiming he was the technician the bank had asked for some control. The robber left the bank with more than one million euro with a …taxi!
The police? Oh, the police often says that there some hints for the criminals….
After the banks, the main target of robbers, installed security systems at their entrances, the robbers changed direction and started to hit private households. Some claim, that these house robberies occur because the unstable economic situation takes bank customers to withdraw their savings and keep them at home. However this sounds more an ‘urban legend’. If you hear and read about the crime incidents the burglars go away with no more than maximum a couple of thousands euro.
Thank you for sharing your view on what is going on in Greece because mainstream media keeps us uninformed or misinformed. I am following Estonian and Swedish news sometimes, people now nothing of what is really going on in Greece. I have been looking for alternative news for weeks and I will keep my eye on your blog from now on and take it as one of my personal sources of information on what goes on in Greece. We need more real information to come out of the corporate news fields! I wish you well and hope you find some time every now and then to share your views on what is really going on there.
There is a call from avaaz.org to bail out the people and not the banks, within 3 days 350 000 people have already signed the petition.
There are massdemonstrations in many countries in order to demand real democracy for all of us.
Lets keep each other informed!
Thank you, Evelin. The blog is updated daily with 6-8 posts in the average. KTG started exactly fo rthis purpose: to give foreigners an idea of how it is to liv ein Greece nowadays.
This is awful. Sorry to hear you are suffering in this way. I live outside Europe, but follow a blog from Argentina by “Ferfal” (you can google that.) Apparently the best place to live is in the city in a gated community. At least try to come together with like minded people in an area where you can patrol for mutual security.
When things are tough the police and army will only stand by the government, not the people. We know this from social experiements in the 70s/80s; anyone is willing to push the button for authority. Sad, but true, we are alone.
It is very sad how things have become. Watching my parents country in a death spiral is very upsetting. I wonder often when did this begin to happen? I guess there is something to be said for the one of the most basic elements of a nation is a well defended border. Greece compromised its borders long ago with the EU, and with the influx of illegal immigrants, the culture and economy were adversely affected. Greece was always a poor-ish country, and with the mass of illegals getting benefits, the economy suffered. Compound that with the all too generous pension plans and you have the making of a very bad situation.
Bear in mind, I am not against immigrants, not at all. My parents were immigrants to the US (a country based on immigrants). I just believe that it is something that needs to be controlled. If the economy and the population suffer, is it worth it?
Another thing Greeks can do is to create neighborhood watch programs like we do in Ameriki. On my street here in Greece, I’ve mobilized neighbors to keep an eye out and fortunately, we have several katinas (nosy old ladies) who are very helpful and if we see someone we don’t know on our street day or night acting weird, we approach them and let them know we are on to them.
Thank God for Kyria Maria and her army of Kung Fu Yia-Yiades who patrol our street keeping it safe.