A 17-year-old has admitted to police that he abducted two infants in Athens, saying his actions were motivated by prejudice. The teenager was arrested on September 4 after investigators reviewed hours of surveillance footage.
According to his statement, he took the baby found near the Acropolis because, as he told officers, he “wanted to show that Roma parents don’t take care of their children.” A similar incident had taken place in May, when he was recorded on camera taking a six-month-old from its grandmother in the Omonia district. He later abandoned the child near a trash bin in Alimos.
The mother of the baby involved in the more recent case told police she met the 17-year-old on a bus, where he offered to buy food for her child. She said he later followed her to a supermarket and then a pharmacy. There, as the woman struggled with a declined payment card, he took the opportunity to abduct the baby.
Footage aired by Greek broadcaster MEGA shows the suspect pushing a stroller with an infant through the streets of Piraeus at around 4:10 p.m., while the child’s mother and other children can later be seen running frantically to find the baby. Another video shows the teenager walking casually alongside the mother from the supermarket to the pharmacy, moments before the abduction.
This is not the first time the 17-year-old has been in trouble with the law. In June, he was detained for impersonating a bus inspector in the suburb of Vari, issuing fake fines to passengers without tickets. At that time, charges were filed against him for fraud, forgery, impersonation, and violations of telecommunications regulations.
Police confirmed that the suspect remained at large for months before being identified and taken into custody.
