RATINGEN, Germany, April 14 (Reuters) – Within the German city of Ratingen, exploding money machines are a hot-button subject.
Two obtained blown up early on the identical morning final month, at branches of Santander (SAN.MC) and Deutsche Financial institution (DBKGn.DE) throughout the road from one another near the Duesseldorf suburb’s important sq..
A 12 months in the past, residents of the flats above Santander unsuccessfully sued to have the machines eliminated on account of considerations they may very well be raided – a gesture which may looking back be deemed prophetic in different nations.
However in Germany, thieves are blowing ATMs up on the fee of a couple of a day.
Assaults are up greater than 40% since 2019, in line with the inside ministry, and investigators say two elements are driving the rise.
Europe’s largest economic system has 53,000 ATM machines, a disproportionately excessive quantity that displays Germans’ choice for money quite than financial institution playing cards. The nation additionally boasts an in depth community of highways, or Autobahns, on a lot of which no pace restrict is enforced.
Ratingen lies simply 70km (40 miles) from the Dutch border, and investigators say gangs from the Netherlands are the prime culprits for the assaults, which ship glass flying, trigger constructing facades to crumble and cash cartridges to crack open.
Raiders obtained away with practically 20 million euros ($22.1 million) in 2021, when 392 ATM explosions had been recorded, a tally that rose to 496 in 2022. Police within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the place Ratingen lies and which has borne the brunt of the assaults, have recorded 47 incidents to date in 2023, up on final 12 months’s fee.
DUTCH RAIDERS
In the meantime the frequency of ATM attackers is falling within the Netherlands, partly on account of safety measures resembling glue that makes blocks of money inside ATMs unusable, Dutch police say.
So Dutch money machine raiders are crossing the border and, German police estimate, have carried out between 70% to 80% of assaults in Germany since 2018.
Dutch police suspect round 500 males are accountable, working in ever-evolving teams as new recruits change those that get caught. Prosecutors in Frankfurt this week charged six Dutch residents with inflicting explosions, theft and property harm.
Ratingen police are investigating a doable Dutch connection in final month’s twin raid too, having recognized a small automobile that sped from the scene to a close-by Autobahn.
On Thursday, practically a month after the assaults, Santander’s facade remained boarded up. Deutsche Financial institution’s signal was nonetheless broken, and an indication requested for patrons’ understanding that ATMs had been out of order whereas underneath restore.
In Germany, roughly 60% of on a regular basis purchases are paid in money, in line with a Bundesbank research that discovered Germans, on common, withdrew greater than 6,600 euros yearly mainly from money machines.
Germany can be working with officers in Belgium and France and at Europol to fight the money machine crime wave. The accomplice authorities didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Noting that ATM raids endangered lives, German Inside Minister Nancy Faeser this week urged banks to step up security measures for ATMs.
Each Santander and Deutsche mentioned they prioritised security and had been repeatedly enhancing ATM safety, however banks inside Germany are reluctant to undertake blanket measures, as an alternative advocating a case-by-case strategy relying on particular person safety threat.
A spokesperson for Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft, a umbrella foyer group for the nation’s monetary establishments, mentioned: “Completely different places include completely different dangers. There’s at present no one-size-fits-all resolution.”
($1 = 0.9044 euros)
Further reporting by Milan Pavicic; enhancing by John Stonestreet
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