NEWS

Boy kidnapped for lottery cash

The teenage son of a couple from Loutsa, east of Athens, that had won 280,000 euros in the Joker lottery escaped from his kidnappers yesterday hours after the two men abducted him and demanded the winnings from his parents. Police found the 15-year-old wandering close to Athens International Airport yesterday afternoon. He told officers that he had been tied and blindfolded and left in a shack that he believes was located somewhere in Markopoulo, east of Athens. The teenager was abducted shortly before 6 a.m. when two armed men wearing hoods burst into his house after his father had left for work. They demanded 200,000 euros from his mother. The suspects mentioned the lottery win, immediately arousing the woman’s suspicions. She tried to pull back the hood of one of the men to see if he was someone she knew but failed, police said. The two men took the teenager hostage, telling his mother to gather the cash to ensure his return.

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