The bridge was convenient for countless people but the river was even more so for a few others who would rather keep clear of the official crossing. When the river Arachthos became a border, bands of brigands would cross it to abduct wealthy citizens from the other side and keep them as hostages in the remote mountaintops, forests, and caves of Tzoumerka until a ransom was paid. In one particularly notorious case in 1884, the bandits abducted two girls from Greece and kept them in the mountains for seventeen days, only returning them to their families on receiving 108 kilos (239 lbs) of gold and silver (the weight of the women). Even men in love would cross the river illegally to abduct the women they loved when their families refused them their hands in marriage.