They walked into a jeweller's shop in Igalo as two ordinary shoppers. They asked the assistant to show them some gold chains. She laid them out on the counter, turned away, dealt with the other customers - and in that moment, according to Montenegrin police, four gold chains disappeared into their handbags.

Zh.C.T. (55) and A.R. (33), both from the Skopje area, were arrested in a flat in Herceg Novi. The theft took place on 15 July at around 13:30, and police recovered the chains and returned them to the owner of the shop.

What makes this story different from the average petty-crime bulletin is the age. Fifty-five and thirty-three. Not teenagers acting on impulse, not movie professionals. These are two grown women who sat down, decided the method would be to pose as interested shoppers, travelled to Montenegro and executed the plan in the middle of the day.

Montenegrin police say appropriate criminal proceedings will be launched against both under Montenegrin law, and that the investigation continues in order to clear up all the circumstances.

Summer in the Balkans is the season when we all head to the neighbours - some to the beach, some clearly on other business. And when Macedonian citizens end up stuck in a Montenegrin police station, the region's old truth gets confirmed all over again: the borders only exist on paper. The chain, at least, made it back to the counter it started from. The two shoppers did not.