A feisty, fearless Queens mother who thwarted her daughter’s kidnapping slammed the “disgusting” attacker and taunted him during his sentencing.
Adriana Alvarez said her piece inside Queens Criminal Court Thursday prior to the sentencing of George Vassiliou, the stalker who tried kidnapping her 18-year-old daughter, Lex, from their Astoria apartment building.
“This family will live on with this legacy of resilience of love and your family will live with shame,” she told Vassiliou. “We will never think about you after this point. But you will think about this forever. You will probably think about where you went wrong, or how you could’ve [avoided being] caught, but in that story, and in every story you come up with, you will lose. And I will always win.”
Vassiliou, 26, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars after pleading guilty Feb. 11 to attempted kidnapping and burglary.
The terrifying Jan. 23, 2024, incident was captured by Alvarez’s doorbell camera.
Lex was seen in the clip returning to the family’s fourth-floor apartment on 43rd Street from a morning walk with the their two dogs.
Out of nowhere, a masked man in a camouflage jacket emerged from a nearby staircase, where he’d been lying in wait.
Vassiliou, wearing black gloves, grabbed Lex by both shoulders, and started violently dragging the terrified girl down the stairs and out of frame. Hearing her daughter’s cries for help, Alvarez is then seen bolting out into the hallway, and straight down the stairs.
“Even before you attempted your pathetic kidnapping, you had already lost — I was home,” said Alvarez, who broke bones fending Vassiliou off.
A life-or-death struggle continued down four flights of stairs, as the fierce 5-foot-4, 130-pound mom exchanged blows with the hulking and armed 6-foot-2, 230-pound Vassiliou.
Lex worked with Vassiliou at the C-Town Supermarket on 34th Avenue in Astoria. The young cashier had befriended Vassiliou, who worked in the deli department.
“This disgusting human hid in our stairwell in an attempt to kidnap my daughter,” Alvarez declared, noting Vassiliou pepper-sprayed her as he tried taking Lex. “You may think your plan was well calculated. You rented a car, you had a bag ready with rope, tampons, sleeping pills.”
Somehow, Lex walked away from the ordeal without a scratch. Alvarez, meanwhile, suffered severe injuries, resulting in mounting medical bills. A GoFundMe campaign started by her uncle raised more than $54,000 for the hero mom.
“I have done my share of soul searching this year and I know you wish to hear you have broken us,” said Alvarez. “But that’s not even remotely close to being true. You only made us stronger.”
