Masked thieves made off with millions of euros from a Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen bank branch in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, last weekend, after breaching the bank's vault and accessing a large number of private lockboxes. The robbers entered the bank through a garage, broke through a door, and drilled through a thick wall to access the vault, according to police reports.
The heist, which occurred in a city of roughly 260,000 residents near Cologne, initially attracted little attention, but the scale of the theft became apparent in recent days. Police stated that the thieves targeted the bank's archive room and then focused on breaching the vault wall. They then systematically opened the bank's private lockers.
Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen reported that the robbers broke into 95 percent of the branch's 3,250 personal lockboxes. The insured value of the contents of those boxes was at least 31 million euros, or $36 million. The bank has not released a specific inventory of the stolen items, but authorities believe the thieves likely used a crowbar to open the lockboxes.
The sophistication and scale of the robbery have drawn comparisons to other high-profile heists in Germany, including the Green Vault robbery of 2019. The Green Vault theft involved the stealing of priceless jewels from a museum in Dresden.
Law enforcement officials are currently investigating the Gelsenkirchen robbery, focusing on identifying the perpetrators and recovering the stolen assets. The investigation is ongoing, and authorities are appealing to the public for any information related to the crime. The bank is working with customers to assess the full extent of their losses and process insurance claims.
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