Thieves looted €30 million from 3,200 Sparkasse safe deposit boxes in Gelsenkirchen, in what is believed to be Germany’s biggest bank heist in decades. Customers reacted with fury on Tuesday.
It’s being described as Germany’s biggest bank heist in decades, with investigators estimating a staggering €30 million haul in cash and valuables from the raid at a Sparkasse branch in Gelsenkirchen’s Buer district in North Rhine-Westfalia.
Around 3,200 safe deposit boxes – over 95 percent of the total – were ransacked, affecting more than 2,500 customers, with the break-in discovered via a fire alarm on Monday morning.
Furious victims gathered on Tuesday, with up to 200 chanting “We want to go in!” outside the shuttered branch, prompting police intervention to prevent a rush past security.
The police urged people to return home, referring them to the Sparkasse online portal and saying a hotline would be activated there.
The perpetrators reportedly tunnelled from an adjacent parking garage, drilling through walls into the vault. Investigators suspect the gang spent much of the weekend inside, breaking open the deposit boxes.
The break-in came to light after a fire alarm was triggered in the early hours of Monday and emergency services discovered the hole.
Witnesses reported seeing several men carrying large bags in the stairwell of the parking garage during the night from Saturday to Sunday.
Footage from security cameras also revealed a black Audi RS 6 leaving the parking garage early Monday morning, with masked persons inside.
The car’s license plate had been stolen earlier in the city of Hanover, police said.
Police said the more than 3,000 boxes had an average insurance value of 10,000 euros, and therefore estimated the damage at some 30 million euros.
Several victims had told police officers that their losses far exceeded the insured value of their safe deposit boxes.
With reporting by AFP.
