The Petra Robbery
Anogeio is the homeland of the Rentzaioi clan, two members of which achieved notoritey through being chief suspects for one of the biggest bank robberies in the history of the region. The event took place in the turbulent years following the liberation of Epirus from the Ottoman Emprie in 1913. On the 12 June 1926, a National Bank of Ioannina vehicle was held up at the location of Petra (on the Ioannina to Preveza highway). 15million drachmas, a substantial sum for the time, were stolen from the vehicle and 8 members of the security crew were found murdered at the scene. The robbery was reputedly the most high profile act in a number of murders, kidnappings and higwhay robberies with which the Rentzaioi brothers (Thymios and Ioannis) were associated. Their story and the manhunt across Albania, Italy and the Balkans to their eventual arrest in Varna, Bulgaria are recorded in Greek national newspapers of the time (including Kathimerini), archives of the period held in the National Library of Greece, the University of Ioannina, and local oral tradition. They were tried and executed for their crimes on 5 March 1930 in Corfu jail. Clan rivalry, and banditry were endemic in the mountains of Greece during the late 19th and early 20th century as attested in numerous sources. The bandits were often tolerated and supported by the local populace. Petty local officialdom and state authority were held in general disregard, a phenomenon accentuated by the remoteness of the mountain settlements.
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