While a western German city slept through the Christmas holidays, thieves drilled into a bank vault and vanished with millions.
Robbers broke into a vault at a savings bank in western Germany during the Christmas holidays, stealing cash, gold and jewellery estimated to be worth up to $105m, the police and the bank said.
According to police on Tuesday, the perpetrators used a large drill to bore through a thick concrete wall of a branch of Sparkasse bank in the city of Gelsenkirchen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state. Breaking in from an adjacent parking garage, the thieves gained access to an underground vault room and forced open more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes.
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Thomas Nowaczyk, a police spokesperson, said investigators believe the total value of the stolen items could range between 10 and 90 million euros ($11.7m and $105.7m).
German news agency dpa reported that the robbery may rank among the biggest in the country’s history.
Sparkasse confirmed that the branch had been “broken into over the Christmas holidays”, saying that “more than 95 percent of the 3,250 customer safe deposit boxes were broken into by unknown perpetrators”.
The crime is believed to have taken place while businesses were closed for the extended Christmas break. Police suspect the gang may have remained inside the building for several days, using the long holiday weekend to break into the deposit boxes undetected.
The theft only came to light in the early hours of Monday, when a fire alarm was triggered. Emergency responders who arrived at the scene discovered the hole leading into the vault.
Witnesses later told police they had seen several men carrying large bags through the parking garage stairwell overnight between Saturday and Sunday.
Security camera footage also showed a black Audi RS 6 leaving the garage early on Monday morning, with masked individuals inside. The vehicle was later identified as having a licence plate belonging to a car stolen in Hanover, more than 200km (124 miles) northeast of Gelsenkirchen.
Ocean’s Eleven-esque
A police spokesman described the operation as highly organised, comparing it with a Hollywood-style robbery resembling Ocean’s Eleven.
The break-in was “indeed very professionally executed”, he told the AFP news agency.
“A great deal of prior knowledge and/or a great deal of criminal energy must have been involved to plan and carry this out,” he added.
Police said the average insured value of each deposit box was more than 10,000 euros ($11,700). However, officers said several victims had reported that the contents of their boxes were worth significantly more than the insured amount.
On Tuesday, hundreds of customers gathered outside the bank, demanding answers. The branch remained closed for security reasons after threats were reportedly made against staff.
“I couldn’t sleep last night. We’re getting no information,” one man told the Welt broadcaster, saying he had used the safe deposit box for 25 years and stored his retirement savings there.
Nowaczyk, the police spokesperson, said officers remained at the scene to monitor the situation. “We’re still on site, keeping an eye on things,” he said, adding that “the situation has calmed down considerably”.
The bank said it had set up a hotline for affected customers and would contact them in writing as soon as possible. It added that it was working with insurers to determine how compensation claims would be handled.
“We are shocked,” said bank press spokesperson Frank Krallmann. “We are standing by our customers, and hope that the perpetrators will be caught.”
Police said the suspects remain at large, and investigations are ongoing.
A spokesperson for the Sparkasse bank in Gelsenkirchen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
