It happens in the middle of the night, by surprise, horrifying entire neighborhoods and threatening buildings. Gangs of robbers blow up ATMs in bank branches and post offices where they are stationed, in order to try and storm after the explosion the cash hidden inside and run away with the loot.
Post offices and bank branches have already been closed for weeks after these explosions, which are happening with increasing frequency in Germany and Europe as a whole. The number of ATM robbery attempts using explosives in Germany jumped to 250 last year (twice the previous year), and the German police estimate that the number will rise even more this year.
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In fact, the phenomenon is so widespread and has increased in recent weeks, that the German Ministry of the Interior, in consultation with the banks, decided this week on some emergency measures. First, those rooms open to the public where the ATMs are located will be closed from 11:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m., according to a report in the local media. This means that German residents will not be able to withdraw money from their bank branches during these hours, and will be forced to turn to small ATMs that charge a high withdrawal fee. It’s also bad news for the homeless who tend to enter these rooms, which are usually heated. At the same time, more safety measures will be placed around the ATM rooms, and the amount of cash stored in them will be reduced.
The new measures were announced by German Interior Minister Nancy Passer, who said that it was a “new threat”. “Those who try to rob ATMs in this way are putting human lives at risk, and we must not allow criminal gangs to claim the lives of innocent people,” she said, noting that “the number of attacks has been increasing in recent times.”
“Europol” reported that the phenomenon is repeated in countries neighboring Germany, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, where the number of ATM explosions has also jumped by dozens of percent in the past year. A perusal of the local news in Germany shows a series of cases: starting with an ATM of the “Sparkasse” bank that blew up at 02:42 on Wednesday morning in a neighborhood in Munich, to an ATM in the city of Kassel that blew up after midnight. In both cases, a car belonging to the robbers was recorded fleeing the scene. In Bavaria alone there have been 31 cases so far this year, compared to 17 last year. The pictures in the media show ground floors that have turned into ruins, temporary buildings that have collapsed and a lot of shattered glass.
The German police estimate that the gangs operate from the Netherlands, and it is reported that they “use professional explosives and methods of operation that make it difficult to locate them.” In many cases, these are ATMs located in bank branches near highways, which allows for a quick escape. In many cases, the authorities are forced to subsequently evacuate the buildings where the bank branches are located, for fear of the structure collapsing.