A 20-year-old from Skopje walked into a sports betting shop in Bit Pazar carrying a sharp object and tried to take money from the employee. He failed. The time was 19:45, the date 15 August.

Officers from the Skopje police department detained S.A. (20) from Skopje after the case was reported. The Centar and Bit Pazar internal affairs unit will file criminal charges on suspicion of „attempted robbery” under Article 237 in conjunction with Article 19 of the Criminal Code.

From a policing standpoint this is fast, clean work - report, arrest, documentation, charges. Exactly how the system is supposed to work when it works.

What the statement leaves unsaid is the person on the other side of the counter. A woman working alone, at quarter to eight in the evening, facing a man with a sharp object. She is not a number in Article 237 - she is the reason that article exists.

Betting shops across Skopje's neighbourhoods stay open late, often with a single employee, cash in the till and no security. For the owner that is a saving. For the employee it is a risk carried alone, on a wage everybody knows the size of.

The police did their part. The question is who checks the conditions under which someone is left alone behind that counter after dark.