A decades-old unresolved bank heist
On December 19, 1992, robbers drilled holes in the basement wall of what was then an Ergasias Bank branch in central Athens – even though it was reinforced with steel – opened hundreds of safes and removed valuables, cash and bonds worth billions of drachmas, or millions of euros today.
The alarm was activated, but the patrol car that rushed to the scene found nothing. Decades later, in November 2020, surveyor engineer Dimitris Theodosopoulos identified the entrance that the perpetrators had built.
It had been covered. He remembers, however, that at the time there was a hole through which he could see the tunnel. On Wednesday, a part of the road surface of Kallirrois Street gave way.
Theodosopoulos along with Giorgos Kafantaris were at the time members of a group of speleologists who were urban explorers.
The tunnel started from a hole in the left embankment of the Ilissos River and stretched 28 meters to Kallirrois.
According to reports from 1992, the perpetrators, posing as EYDAP water company workers, breached a storm drain on Kallirrois and lowered a generator, an assembled wagon, compressors, iron pillars and other tools into the bed of the Ilissos. They left behind helmets, gloves, a generator and the wagon.
Two months later, empty jewelry boxes were found on a beach in Vravrona, east of Athens, as well as bags with checks and other documents that turned out to belong to the thieves.
The investigations led to arrests, even of bank executives, but they were all released as there was no evidence linking them to the case. The heist remains unsolved to this day.
Theodosopoulos estimates that there must have been an engineer among the robbers.
