Record number of ATM explosions in Germany; Most linked to Dutch suspects
So far this year, German authorities have recorded over 450 incidents where criminals used explosives and incendiary devices to try to blast open an ATM as part of a robbery. It’s the highest number of ATM explosions ever to take place in a single year in the country, and the offenses have mainly been attributed to Dutch criminals. Germany, which borders the Netherlands to the east, is concerned about the development.
The majority of ATMs in the Netherlands were programmed to shut down in the evening and overnight hours starting at the end of 2019. That was to contend with the sharp rise in ATM explosions, with criminals also generating heavier explosions that caused more superficial and structural damage to buildings around the ATMs. The number of attempted robberies of ATMs using explosives subsequently fell, while it’s believed the number in Germany began to rise.
According to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, more than 450 ATMs have been blown up in Germany this year, reaching an all-time high.
Blowing up ATMs has recently been increasingly committed with explosives, announced the German Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK). This new development is causing concern, as in the past criminals tended to use gas mixtures for attacks. Now, it seems there is even less regard for causing injury or death to people in the surrounding areas in the pursuit of stealing money from the cash machines.
Collateral damage is also taking on a new dimension in this crime, said Oliver Huth, regional chair of the Association of German Criminal Investigators (BDK) in North Rhine-Westphalia, in an interview with Welt am Sonntag. Blown-up ATMs "have already injured pedestrians, metal parts have hit children's bedrooms and houses were no longer habitable," he said.
In the meantime, more and more criminals from the Netherlands are committing their crimes in Germany, claimed Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius. The reason for this is that, in contrast to the Netherlands, banks in Germany refrain from using gluing techniques, with which banknotes can be glued together and rendered unusable in the event of an explosion.
