A Crete woman returning home after picking up her son from school was shocked by the sight of a nude burglar hiding in her bed and with practically all of the household’s fine cutlery next to him.
The incident took place this week in a village near the eastern Cretan town of Ierapetra, with the suspect identified as a Pakistani national, 25, who lived in the area as an “irregular migrant” – i.e. he sneaked into the country at some point and time and made his way to the village of Vainia.
According to reports and an initial dispatch by the website Cretanews, police said the man first sat down and had dinner in the kitchen, then enjoyed a cigarette by the lit fireplace. He then allegedly ransacked the residence in search of valuables, only to slip into the covers of the master bedroom in the nude. Authorities found a meat cleaver and three high-end kitchen knives in the bed.
Returning with her 11-year-old son from school, Maria Z. said she was shocked by the mess in her house. Moving into the bedroom she immediately noticed that someone was hiding under the covers of her bed. She told Proto Thema she quickly bolted from the residence with her son, locked the front door on the way out and started screaming for help.
Neighbors ran out to the street and police soon arrived, with the foreign national arrested after a brief struggle. His first alleged statement to police was that he was “mixed up, and thought he had entered his own home”.
The incident has generated tension in the area, police said, as local residents have demanded that authorities take measures against a growing number of Pakistani men they charge illegally entered the country and found their way to this corner of Crete – a major all-year producer of vegetables – to look for work in the fields and greenhouses.