Lottery Winner Pays Ransom For Grandson

A lottery winner handed over $170,000 to kidnappers to get her 11-year-old grandson back.

Costakis Dalakas was abducted Thursday after getting off a school bus in Anavissos, 24 miles south of Athens. He was reunited with his family Monday night after his mother gave a kidnapper the money.

Police were searching for the kidnappers, and posted an $830,000 reward.

The gang had threatened to infect the boy with the AIDS virus if his grandmother, Evangelia Kapsolemis, didn’t hand over a $540,000 lottery prize that she won in January. They later lowered their demand.

It was the first kidnapping in Greece linked to a lottery winner, according to police.