Burglars create jobs in Greece

Greece’s economic crisis is creating an unexpected boom for at least one industry.
Banks, stores and companies are hiring security guards, installing alarm systems and renting armored cars as rising hardship leads to an increase in crime. Britain’s G4S Plc and Brink’s Co. of the U.S., along with Pyrsos Security, Greece’s largest domestic private security firm, are winning new clients.
“Here in Greece we never had this situation,” said Sakis Tsaoussis, president of Athens-based Pyrsos, which counts Agricultural Bank SA, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. and retailer Inditex SA among customers. “We could walk anywhere. You could sleep with the windows open. Now we are scared.”
Robberies, ranging from street muggings to bank hold-ups and house burglaries, totaled about 80,000 in 2009, up from about 50,000 in 2005, data compiled by ICAP Group’s Athens office show. The increase occurred as the unemployment rate rose to a 10-year high of 11.8 percent and the government and European Union estimate the Greek economy will contract 4 percent this year and 2.6 percent next year.
Pyrsos’s armored cars were robbed five times in the past 12 months with the thieves getting away with 700,000 euros ($914,000), Tsaoussis said.
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