“We want to get in! We want to get in!”, shouted on Tuesday about 200 people gathered in front of a branch in They were customers of Sparkasse, the savings bank, desperate for the million-dollar theft that was discovered the day before and the lack of explanations about the destination of their belongings.
The thieves, probably over the weekend, drilled holes in the wall of the bank’s security room and broke into 3,200 lockers where customers kept money, gold, jewelry and other objects worth an estimated 30 million euros. Only 5% of the lockers were left intact.
A few days after Christmas and on the eve of New Year’s Eve, hundreds of people in Gelsenkirchen believe they have been left without their most precious possessions while they carelessly celebrated the holidays. “If we are among those affected, we will have lost everything,” “In the box were our family’s jewelry and money.”
It is unclear when exactly the robbery occurred, or how the thieves proceeded. It is not known who they are or where they are. They entered the bank office through an underground parking lot. From there, they entered a file room. With a drill, they pierced the wall of the armored room where the loot was located.
The German press released videos from a surveillance camera on Wednesday in which one of the cars, a black Audi RS 6 with a Hannover license plate, can be seen leaving the parking lot. Before, a hooded man religiously pays the ticket bill at the machine. In another image you can see a white car and someone, who seems to be hooded, lifting the barrier with his hand. This time, the vehicle leaves without paying.
The other question, the one that worries customers who on Tuesday protested in front of the closed branch amidst a considerable police presence, is whether they will get their belongings back. that each locker is insured up to a sum of 10,300 euros, but keeps the doors closed while the damage is repaired.
According to the evidence, the thieves they worked a good part of the weekend, taking advantage of the tranquility of the holidays. The branch and parking lot are located in the Buer neighborhood of Gelsenkirchen, a city of 265,000 inhabitants in the industrial Ruhr area of western Germany.
On Saturday, a fire alarm went off in the bank building, but both police and firefighters responded and found nothing. Several testimonies saw, between Saturday night and early Sunday morning, men with large bags on the stairs of the parking lot.
On Monday, at 3:58 a.m., another alarm went off. It was then that, upon thoroughly inspecting the building, firefighters and police saw a hole in the basement and discovered the theft. a track leads to the Netherlands. The police have not confirmed this.
