Larisa: two arrests over ten burglaries of flats

Two men, aged 42 and 40, have been arrested in Larisa and are accused of aggravated theft on a continuing basis, both completed and attempted. According to the announcement by the Hellenic Police, released on Friday 21 August 2026 at 18:12, the arrests were made in the early morning hours of 20 August 2026 by officers of the Larisa Crime Prevention and Suppression Team, in cooperation with the Larisa Immediate Response Department. Both men arrested are presumed innocent until the courts rule otherwise, and no detail identifying them is made public.

The two men allegedly attempted to break into a flat in an apartment block in the centre of Larisa. They were noticed, the Operations and Communications Centre of the Larisa Police Directorate was alerted and they were immobilised in the building’s stairwell, while according to the announcement they were trying to escape. Burglary tools, keys, gloves, masks and two mobile phones were found in their possession and seized. Also seized were 1,885 euros, 495 United States dollars and 40 pounds sterling. According to the press description of the incident, the keys found were allegedly of the master key type, a detail attributed to the report in question and not independently confirmed. The announcement does not state who the money and the foreign currency seized belonged to, or whether they are linked to any particular one of the complaints that have been filed.

The investigation connected the two men with a series of earlier incidents. As stated in the announcement, between 7 and 20 August 2026 they allegedly committed nine further burglaries of flats in Larisa. From those acts, 60,400 euros in cash is said to have been taken, as well as gold items whose value is estimated at around 89,000 euros. That amounts to ten incidents in total over a period of two weeks, all of them in flats in apartment blocks, at a time when many households are away on summer holidays. The estimate of the value of the gold items comes from the police announcement and has not resulted from an independent expert assessment. The police have not disclosed in which districts of the city the remaining incidents took place, or whether the victims were inside the flats at the time.

The two men arrested were taken before the Larisa public prosecutor of the first-instance criminal court. The preliminary investigation is continuing at the Larisa Sub-Directorate for Crime Prosecution and Investigation, with the aim of establishing any involvement on their part in other cases. The announcement does not make clear whether the money and valuables seized have been returned to their lawful owners, or whether the gold items mentioned in the earlier burglaries have been recovered. Nor is it stated how the other nine cases were identified, or whether other people are being sought. Similar cases of financial crime being solved in the regions, such as the arrest over a telephone fraud in Pella, show that local police directorates often link isolated incidents to a series of earlier complaints. The case is expected to move to its judicial stage, with no trial date announced.