A love affair led 41-year-old Dechko Dekov to break the window of a bank branch in Sliven on 17 December. This is revealed by the author himself to a Nova TV team.
Just a week ago, a 42-year-old man tried to rob a bank in Sliven. Failed due to an activated alarm. However, a security guard was injured in the attack. Yesterday the man was released from house arrest with an electronic bracelet. His criminal record includes theft, robbery and escape.
“I’m not a bank robber at all. I call it my personal tragedy, I don’t know what to call it,” says Dechko Dekov.
December 17, 2022, 7:00 pm Dechko Dekov, 41, throws a stone, breaks the glass and enters to rob a bank. He was captured on the spot, without a mask and gloves, waiting for the police to arrest him.
“I sat and waited and no one came. I got up, went in, saw a woman photographing me outside, went out, the police came, told them what I had done, they didn’t believe me. 2-3 minutes later a patrol car with a policeman also arrived, they entered. I went to the door and said: “Gentlemen, policemen, come here, I am the perpetrator,” says Dekov.
A NOVA team found him in the village of Sotirya. The day he was placed under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. The man welcomes us with croissants and coffee in a modest room and tells us the reasons why he attempted to rob a bank. And the reason is one: love.
“I had a conversation with my girlfriend, who we have been in a relationship with for almost two years. She is in England. She told me she intended to go home to her husband. She teased me by wanting to send me pictures of how he was doing. I said I wouldn’t let him see it. I called a taxi and went to Sliven. With the intention of doing something that will take me to a place where I won’t have access to social networks: prison,” says Dekov.
“Maybe 200 meters before reaching the bank itself I decided. The taxi stopped where I told him, i.e. about 10 meters from the shore. I went down, I was very tense, I was very angry. I had also taken antidepressants. I took a concrete block, threw it against the side window of the bank, went inside and sat on the chair, only for the police to come and take me away,” Dekov says.
According to data from the prosecutor’s file, there were BGN 30,000 in the bank branch at that time, which Dechko never had access to.
“To the employees and their customers, I want to say this: Their money was in no way threatened by my taking it.” I’m sorry for the vandalism I did to the glass, I didn’t want to take money from it. I’m so damn sorry for two reasons: I let my emotions get the better of me and it’s not right what I did. I want to continue my life absolutely normal,” Dekov says.
He admits that he loves his girlfriend very much. “But she’s already with her husband and her children and I won’t interfere in any way. A rather fatal love,” says Dekov.
