A wave of bank vault break-ins shakes North Rhine-Westphalia.
Several safe deposit boxes in North Rhine-Westphalia have been broken into again, raising widespread concern among bank customers. The latest of these incidents occurred at a bank branch in Halle Westfalen near Bielefeld, following previous incidents in Bonn and Gelsenkirchen.
According to the police, four safes were broken into on Tuesday afternoon during official working hours at the bank branch in Halle Westfalen. The affected customers have been contacted, but the extent of the damage is still unclear. It is also not yet clear how the perpetrators managed to access the secured safe area, and the police have called on witnesses to report any suspicious observations.
These recent incidents have led to increased anxiety among customers, as many fear losing important documents and valuable possessions. The police indicate that some customers are making serious mistakes in advance, such as failing to document the contents of their safes, which could complicate the compensation process later.
The Halle incident comes in the context of a series of similar thefts. On December 17, the police in Bonn were informed about the break-in and robbery of two safes, with a former bank employee suspected of involvement. However, the most serious cases occurred in Gelsenkirchen, where unknown individuals broke into more than 95 percent of the 3,250 safes belonging to clients inside a bank vault.
In Gelsenkirchen, it is believed that the perpetrators used special tools to access the fortified vault. The insured losses were initially estimated at around 30 million euros, but the actual damages could be much higher. Authorities confirm that the scale of this crime could make it one of the largest bank vault thefts in the history of Western Germany, raising concerns about the security of banks in the region.