Robbers in Germany drilled a large hole in the wall of a basement bank vault and stole tens of millions of dollars’ worth of valuables, police in the northwestern city of Gelsenkirchen said Tuesday.
The thieves are on the run, local police said, urging those with tips to come forward. They “used the quiet of the Christmas holidays” to drill into the bank’s safe room, police said, carving out a large, clean-cut hole through what appears to be layers of thick concrete and masonry. Photos of the safe room show piles of objects, including documents tossed about.
Gelsenkirchen police spokesman Thomas Nowaczyk said Wednesday that about 3,000 safe-deposit boxes were broken into. He added that it was difficult to give a precise estimate of the loss because it wasn’t immediately clear what was in the boxes but that the total is believed to be tens of millions of euros.
Officers were sent to the building at 3:58 a.m. Monday, when a fire alarm was triggered, according to a police statement. They then searched the bank and discovered the hole in the basement safe room.
An initial investigation suggested that the robbers entered the building through an adjacent parking garage, from where they were able to escape with the stolen goods, police said. Witnesses said they saw several men carrying large bags in the garage over the weekend, police added, and video footage from the garage showed masked people inside a black Audi RS 6 station wagon early Monday.
The car’s license plate was traced to a stolen vehicle in Hanover, Germany, about 125 miles northeast of Gelsenkirchen.
Angry customers — up to 200 at times — gathered outside the Sparkasse bank branch Monday and Tuesday trying to enter and find out whether their valuables had been taken. Police were sent to maintain order, and there were “tumultuous scenes” and threats against bank employees, Nowaczyk said.
“We want in, we want in!” the crowd chanted, according to German newspaper Die Welt.
The bank later provided a hotline for customers.
In a notice on its website, Sparkasse said more than 95 percent of safe-deposit boxes had been broken into and told customers they should assume theirs were among them. Customers can’t enter the building until further notice because of “extensive structural damage,” it added.
Each box is insured for up to 10,300 euros (about $12,000), according to the bank, which said customers should check whether their home insurance covered any further losses.
Several customers told German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk that they had stored inherited jewelry and other valuables at the bank and hadn’t taken out additional insurance — or known to do so.
One woman, who did not give her name, told the broadcaster that she kept her father-in-law’s savings at the bank and found out about the robbery only from the radio.
“I almost dropped my coffee cup. No one even called to inform me,” she said. “I don’t dare tell my 91-year-old father-in-law. I’m afraid he’ll have a heart attack and die.”
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