K. Polydoros: Notorious bank robber found dead in his home

The circle of life of the 61-year-old famous bank robber finally closed in last Sunday in Haidari, where he died of a heart attack in your home.

Kostas Polydoroswho became famous for his robberies together with his accomplice Spiros Zolotas, and then with the “Butcher of the Golden Night” Michalis Makrigyannissaid that he also gave away stolen goods to the poor because he had a difficult childhood.

He had recently worked as a security guard in the Haidari Municipality, at the new bridge under construction in Palataki, but he was “haunted” by health problems inherited from his many years in prison and the period when he was on the run from the police.

A characteristic feature of his robberies was his attempt to avoid any form of physical violence against bank employees.

Kostas Polydoros began his criminal activity in his youth and between November 1992 and June 1993 stole a total of 87 million drachmas.

Polydoros graduated from dental college, but became a robber, declaring: “Our society is unfair and cruel. Wherever you turn in Greece, you will find poor people.” For this reason, in the early 1990s, he and his gang decided to take matters into their own hands and redistribute, as he said with a smile, “incomes of the citizens themselves”. The robbers entered bank branches with shotguns in their hands and, having immobilized employees and customers, robbed the cash registers.

Asked about the 87 million drachmas stolen between 1992 and 1993, he later said: “To ease my conscience from the feeling of guilt and remorse, I gave the money to the poor.” Despite numerous police investigations, not a single drachma of this sum was ever found…

Polydoros was sentenced to 20 years in prison, released after 13 years on June 30, 2006, but again went down the same path, which led to his re-arrest. He was arrested in March 2013 along with two other members of the group shortly after an armed robbery they carried out using guns and a grenade at a bank branch on Tivon Avenue in Peristeri.

Police officers led by police officer Georgios Zafeiropoulos, who were on his trail, carried out a “surgical” operation and found him in hiding. They caught him by surprise and immobilized him, while Polydoros' accomplice Zolotas, who was nearby, tried to use a grenade.

For Polydoros, the cycle of bank robberies came to an end. As it turned out during the police investigation, the restless Haidariotis, together with members of his new gang, committed five robberies from September 2011 to January of this year, three of which were bank branches and the other two were National Police stations in the Athens area.

During one of the armed robberies, committed on July 27, 2012, at a bank branch in Nea Smyrni, 57-year-old Zolotas abandoned the politeness and good manners that had characterized him up to that point. It was he who reportedly shot and wounded the police station manager in the arm.

Their arrest caused a sensation, as Michalis Makrigiannis, known as “the butcher from “Golden Night”. Makriyannis, 30, drenched the Golden Night nightclub in blood, leaving two dead and two wounded, adding another to his troubled criminal record, which already included one murder, three escapes and one armed robbery.

And Zolotas' past, however, is not accidental… He was an old friend Vasilisa Paleokostaswho still remains “No. 1” among Greek criminals.I worked with Vasilis only once. We didn't get along. He was a child of the mountains, and I was a child of the city. So we went our separate ways.“, – said Zolotas.

Source link