Police in Athens are searching for a man believed to have abducted an infant girl, who was later discovered abandoned beside a recycling dumpster in the seaside suburb of Alimos on Wednesday.
The investigation began after security footage appeared to support the account given by the infant’s 43-year-old grandmother, who was responsible for the child at the time of the abduction.
According to her statement, the incident began in downtown Omonia, about 10 kilometers from where the baby was found.
Initial analysis of the camera footage shows her grandmother, a Roma woman, begging outside a supermarket with her infant. At one point, the perpetrator approaches her and appears to say, “Let’s go inside so I can do some shopping for you.”
They then go inside, and while they are in the aisle with the diapers, the perpetrator takes the little girl and disappears. He allegedly persuaded her to enter a supermarket, where he then took advantage of her distraction in the diaper aisle to snatch the child and flee. She told police she saw him running away and alerted store employees.
Roughly two hours later, passersby in Alimos heard a baby crying and discovered the infant between two dumpsters. Police were called to the scene, and the baby was taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed she was unharmed.
After finding the baby girl abandoned beside trash bins, the Athens police shared a poignant message on X:
“Sometimes… we don’t have the words either.
An infant, left next to garbage cans.
Today, our uniform didn’t just say ‘Police.’ It stood for something greater.
Some moments remind us why we do this.
For what’s right. For our shared humanity.
For life itself.”
Κάποιες φορές… δεν έχουμε ούτε εμείς λόγια.
Ένα βρέφος δίπλα σε κάδους απορριμμάτων.Σήμερα, η στολή δεν έγραφε μόνο «Αστυνομία», αλλά και κάτι πολύ πιο σημαντικό.
Κάποιες στιγμές μας υπενθυμίζουν γιατί είμαστε εδώ.
Για το αυτονόητο. Για το ανθρώπινο. Για τη ζωή.
Η Ομάδα… pic.twitter.com/t1SmFW5ru3
— Ελληνική Αστυνομία (@hellenicpolice) May 15, 2025
While the search for the suspected abductor continues, the grandmother has been arrested and faces charges of child endangerment.
In a highly publicized case in 2015, Greek police in Sparta made arrests related to illegal adoptions in Sparta where two Roma families and a couple of four-year-old children were involved.
Following a formal complaint submitted to local police, officers arrived in two separate camps near Sparta, where they visited the two Roma families accused of having two children in their custody that were not biologically related to them – a four-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy.
The police officers brought both couples and the children to the local station in order to run the necessary DNA tests. The lab results revealed that the children were not related to their Roma “parents.”
The four adults were arrested on charges of child abduction, while the two couples still insist they are the children’s biological parents.
