Police walked into a house in Veles and came out with a list that reads more like the inventory of a pirate's chest than the haul from a 5,500-euro fraud: counterfeit euro banknotes in various denominations, Serbian dinars, yellowish coins that look like gold, zircons, rings, chains, little beads resembling crystals, several jewellery boxes and mobile phones.

The raid was carried out under a court warrant, and behind it stands coordination between the Criminal Police Department - General and Violent Crime Sector, the Ohrid regional police and the Veles regional police. The suspects are A.S. and D.S., both from Veles, and the offences they are charged with were committed in Ohrid and Struga.

Props, not riches

It is worth pausing on what was found, because it tells the whole story. These are not items of value - these are props. Coins „that look like gold\". Beads „resembling crystals\". Zircons instead of stones. Not one of those objects is expensive in itself; together they are enough to convince someone they are holding something expensive.

That is the entire anatomy of the classic con. You do not need real gold - you need a few seconds in which the victim does not look closely enough. The mobile phones that were also seized close the circle: the first contact, the deal, the meeting point.

Once the case is fully documented, in coordination with the public prosecutor, the appropriate charges will be filed against both men.

5,500 euros is enough to hurt

The sum sounds small next to the scandals we read about every month. But 5,500 euros in Ohrid and Struga is not statistics - it is somebody's savings. And that is exactly why this type of case rarely reaches the headlines: too small for a scandal, too frequent to surprise anyone.

Clearing up two cases is a concrete result and deserves to be said. The question that stays open is the one police statements as a rule do not contain: how many similar complaints are sitting spread across the various regional police stations, and how many of them will ever reach a raid backed by a court warrant.