The father of the 18-year-old who locked himself in a room and managed to drive off the intruders has described to protothema.gr the terrifying moments his son lived through when three burglars broke into their home in Nea Penteli.

According to the father of the courageous young man, his son escaped the worst of it because he had the presence of mind to lock himself in one of the rooms of the detached house. His shouts from behind the closed door were enough to frighten the burglars, who fled.

“My son was alone at home, I was out and my wife was on holiday. At some point he called me and said, ‘Thieves, thieves are breaking into the house, they’re wearing masks.’

He was on his own at the time, reading. They rang the doorbell first to check whether anyone was home. As soon as my son saw three or four masked individuals on the screen, he realised they were burglars. The moment he understood they were coming into the living room, he ran upstairs to the bedroom and locked himself in. We had set up a room in advance so that if anything happened, you could lock yourself inside and coordinate everything from there. My son remembered that and stayed put,” the father said.

He added that the 18-year-old called the emergency number 100 and kept the line open so the sound of the call would frighten the intruders, while also allowing him to receive instructions from the Immediate Action police unit.

“They were very well organised”

“He kept his composure. He locked himself in the room and kept the police on the line the whole time. As he was reporting the incident, the call centre told him not to hang up, so they could hear what was happening and help him over the phone. The men went upstairs, saw a closed door and heard my son from behind it shouting at them to leave. He stayed in the room for about three minutes. They got scared and escaped,” he added.

The father also described the burglars as well organised and methodical, saying they had clearly planned their approach and headed straight for the bedrooms.

“They were as organised as if they were breaking into a bank. All of them wore gloves and full-face masks, and were heavily built. Three of them went into the house, one stood watch outside and another waited in the car. The third had a walkie-talkie with him, and from what I saw, he was also carrying some kind of spray. They arrived in an old BMW. What struck me was that they went straight for the bedrooms, they didn’t even search the ground floor,” the owner of the house in Nea Penteli said.

Authorities searching for the perpetrators

Authorities have launched an investigation to identify those responsible and are gathering CCTV footage of the route the burglars took after the break-in, in order to trace their movements.