‘I felt numb’: German bank heist victims devastated after thieves ransack 3,000 deposit boxes | Germany

FAqir Malyar, a carpet merchant from Gelsenkirchen, West Germany, was on his way to visit one of his customers during the Christmas holidays when he heard the shocking news of a bank robbery on the radio. Thieves had cut a hole in the wall of a local Sparkasse savings bank’s vault and made off with the contents of almost 3,250 safes.

The heist, which a police spokesman likened to the Hollywood movie Ocean’s Eleven, made international headlines: It is estimated that the thieves’ items could be worth €300 million (£260 million); this amount would be one of the biggest bank robberies in a country that has grown wearily familiar with them.

Chief inspector André Dobersch called it an “unprecedented crime” and criticized attempts to shed light on the incident on social media. “In comics, we’re not talking about safecrackers, but criminals who cause sleepless nights and destroy livelihoods,” he said.

For Malyar, this news was extremely worrying. Gelsenkirchen Sparkasse was where she kept her family heirloom jewels as well as her savings. He is afraid that his dreams of retiring soon with his wife are now gone.

“Although I hope my safety deposit box is not one of those that was looted,” the 67-year-old said. But after waiting in line for 45 minutes for his call to the bank helpline to be answered, he was told that his box 1,413 was among more than 3,000 boxes that had been emptied. “I felt numb, as if I had been given an injection,” he said.

Police believe the thieves carried out the theft over a four-hour period on December 27. After gaining access to the bank via a manipulated emergency exit from an adjacent car park, they began drilling a hole in the wall of the vault with a 300kg drill.

The police were only alerted 48 hours later after the fire alarm went off and they arrived to find the thief. CCTV footage shows the masked suspects, believed to number between five and seven, leaving the car park in a black Audi and a white Mercedes van, both carrying stolen number plates. Three weeks after the robbery, the suspects have still not been caught.

In the days after the robbery, customers gathered in front of the bank, displayed angry and emotional images, chanted “let us in” and demanded information. Malyar and thousands of others whose money and valuables were lost want answers from Sparkasse: What was his security level? Were the surveillance systems fit for purpose?

Insurance lawyer Jürgen Hennemann, who has represented victims of more than two dozen bank robberies in Germany since 2012, most of them involving savings banks, said criminals were becoming increasingly brazen as banks failed to fix security vulnerabilities.

“Banks have been constantly warned for 13-14 years that they are the target of organized crime,” he said, adding that despite this, many have not taken action. The result: “Attacks are getting more intense; robberies are getting closer together.”

Hennemann represents a number of clients of Sparkasse in Norderstedt near Hamburg; This bank was carried out in 2021 by criminals who rented the apartment above and drilled through the concrete ceiling to gain access to 650 safety deposit boxes in one of the most spectacular robberies of recent years. Losses here are estimated at between €11 million (according to the bank) and €40 million (according to lawyers representing clients).

Klaus Nachtigall, former head of Berlin’s criminal police force and now a security consultant, said he was not surprised by the theft in Gelsenkirchen: “There are now many such cases, but financial institutions do not seem to want to learn from them.”

“It is sad to know that these actions were preventable. If security systems are working, the alarm should sound at the first sign that a piece of debris has fallen from the wall,” he told local media.

The Sparkasse network, which consists of around 342 credit institutions serving around 50 million customers, said it could so far provide little information while the police investigation continues. About 230 officers were assigned to the “Operation Exercise”.

However, Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen defended the security measures in a statement. In the statement, “We can only say that our security technology meets the latest accepted standards. We achieve this thanks to our collaborations with expert companies. In the last two years, the burglar and fire alarm systems in our buildings were examined and renewed.”

Michael Klotz, head of the Gelsenkirchen branch, told local newspaper WAZ that there was a “constant race between security technology and criminals”, adding that both the bank and its customers were “victims of a theft carried out with extremely criminal energy and using sophisticated technology”.

This is unlikely to bring much consolation to those who have lost their savings. Many people said Sparkasse boxes contained items worth €40,000 or more. Many people were shocked to learn that the basic insurance policy only covers up to €10,300 per box.

Lawyer Hans Reinhardt, who is set to represent many of the Gelsenkirchen victims in the event of legal action, said his clients, including a man who planned to fund his retirement with 600,000 euros worth of gold bullion he kept in a safe, viewed the items as protection against disaster.

“Many people told me they were moving away from stocks and bank accounts and investing in gold due to fears of war and inflation. Some said they were keeping larger amounts of cash on hand so they could access it quickly if needed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malyar said that the carpet shop located just around the corner from the bank has become a meeting point for the victims. “I will prepare the tea,” he said. “I literally became a counselor to people in similar situations who came to me to share their problems.”