{"id":14220,"date":"2026-01-21T05:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=14220"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:18:00","slug":"i-felt-numb-german-bank-heist-victims-devastated-after-thieves-ransack-3000-deposit-boxes-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=14220","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I felt numb\u2019: German bank heist victims devastated after thieves ransack 3,000 deposit boxes | Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

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F<\/span>aqir Malyar, a carpet trader from the western German city of Gelsenkirchen, was on his way to visit one of his customers during the Christmas holidays when he heard news on the radio of an astonishing bank heist. Thieves had drilled a hole in the wall of the vault of a local Sparkasse \u2013 savings bank \u2013 and made off with the contents of almost 3,250 deposit boxes.<\/p>\n

The robbery, likened by a police spokesperson to the Hollywood film Ocean\u2019s Eleven, made international headlines: it is estimated that the thieves\u2019 haul could have been worth as much as \u20ac300m (\u00a3260m), a sum that would make it the one of the biggest bank heists in a country wearily familiar with them.<\/p>\n

Calling it an \u201cunprecedented crime\u201d, the chief investigator, Andr\u00e9 Dobersch, criticised attempts on social media to make light of the case. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about safe-crackers in a comic,\u201d he said, \u201cbut about criminals who\u2019ve caused sleepless nights \u2026 and destroyed livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Police believe that a 300kg drill was used to bore a hole in the vault wall.<\/span> Photograph: Gelsenkirchen Police Handout\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Malyar, the news was deeply alarming. The Gelsenkirchen Sparkasse was where he kept his savings as well as family heirloom jewellery. He fears his dreams of retiring soon with his wife have now gone up in smoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hoped against hope that my deposit box wasn\u2019t one of those that had been plundered,\u201d the 67-year-old said. But after spending 45 minutes waiting in a queue for his call to a bank hotline to be answered, he was told his box, number 1,413, was among more than 3,000 to have been emptied. \u201cI felt as numb as if I\u2019d had an injection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Police believe the thieves carried out the theft over a four-hour period on 27 December. Having gained access to the bank from an adjoining car park through a manipulated emergency exit, they then set about boring a hole with a 300kg drill into the vault\u2019s wall.<\/p>\n

Police were only alerted 48 hours later after a fire alarm was activated and they arrived to find the break-in. CCTV footage shows the masked suspects \u2013 believed to be between five to seven men \u2013 leaving the car park in a black Audi and a white Mercedes van, both bearing stolen number plates. Three weeks after the heist, the suspects are still at large.<\/p>\n

In the days after the heist, customers gathered outside the bank in angry and emotional scenes, chanting \u201clet us in\u201d and demanding information. Malyar and the thousands of others whose money and valuables have gone want answers from the Sparkasse: what level of security did it have? Were its surveillance systems fit for purpose?<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Police officers outside the branch of the Sparkasse.<\/span> Photograph: Christoph Reichwein\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

J\u00fcrgen Hennemann, an insurance lawyer who since 2012 has represented the victims of more than two dozen bank robbery cases in Germany<\/a>, most of them involving the savings banks, said criminals were becoming increasingly brazen as banks failed to address security shortfalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe banks have been constantly warned over 13, 14 years that they are in the crosshairs of organised crime,\u201d he said, adding that despite this many had failed to act. The result: \u201cThe attacks are getting more and more intense; the robberies are happening ever closer together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hennemann is representing a number of customers of the Sparkasse in Norderstedt near Hamburg, which in one of the more spectacular heists of recent years was broken into in 2021 by criminals who rented the apartment above and drilled through the concrete ceiling to gain access to 650 safety deposit boxes. Losses there are estimated to have been between \u20ac11m (according to the bank) and \u20ac40m (according to the lawyers representing the customers).<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>A white Mercedes van with fake number plates was one of two vehicles used by the thieves.<\/span> Photograph: Police Gelsenkirchen\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Klaus Nachtigall, the former head of Berlin\u2019s criminal police office, now a security consultant, said he was not surprised by the theft in Gelsenkirchen: \u201cThere are now so many such cases, but the financial institutions don\u2019t seem to want to learn from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s upsetting to know that these acts are preventable. If security systems are working, the alarm should sound at the first sign of a piece of debris falling out of the wall,\u201d he told local media.<\/p>\n

So far the Sparkasse network, which consists of about 342 lenders serving about 50 million customers, has said it can give little information while the police investigation is continuing. About <\/strong>230 officers have been assigned to \u201cOperation Drill\u201d.<\/p>\n

But, in a statement, Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen defended its security measures. \u201cWe can only say that our security technology meets recognised state-of-the-art standards. We ensure this through our collaboration with specialist companies. Within the last two years, the burglar and fire alarm systems in our buildings have been inspected and upgraded,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Michael Klotz, the head of the Gelsenkirchen branch, said both the bank and its customers had been \u201cvictims of a burglary carried out with highly criminal energy and using complex technology\u201d, telling the local newspaper WAZ that they were in a \u201cconstant race between security technology and criminals\u201d.<\/p>\n

For those who have lost their savings that is unlikely to bring much solace. Many people have said their Sparkasse boxes contained items with a value of \u20ac40,000 or more. A lot have been shocked to learn that the basic insurance policy will cover only up to \u20ac10,300 a box.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>One of the suspects.<\/span> Photograph: Police Gelsenkirchen\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hans Reinhardt, a lawyer who is preparing to represent many of the Gelsenkirchen victims in the event of legal action, said his clients, including a man who had been planning to fund his retirement via gold bars worth \u20ac600,000 he had stored in the vault, had seen the items as protection against catastrophe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people told me that out of fear of war and inflation they had moved away from stocks and bank accounts, investing in gold instead. Some said they kept larger sums of cash on hand so they could access it quickly if needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Malyar, meanwhile, said his carpet shop, around the corner from the bank, had become a meeting point for victims. \u201cI dish out tea,\u201d he said. \u201cI have become something of a counsellor to those in a similar position who come by to share their woes with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#felt #numb #German #bank #heist #victims #devastated #thieves #ransack #deposit #boxes #Germany<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faqir Malyar, a carpet trader … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14220"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}