The police are in touch after the break-in at a savings bank branch Gelsenkirchen a “flood” of tips were received. “It won’t stop at all,” said a police spokesman. However, there is no hot lead yet.
The break-in happened over the Christmas holidays and was discovered on the morning of December 29th. Unknown perpetrators broke into the bank’s vault with a special drill and… More than 3,000 customer lockers were broken intoin which money, jewelry and gold were stored. The loot spree may have lasted for days: Witnesses observed several men with large bags in the stairwell of the parking garage on the night from Saturday to Sunday. The loot was initially roughly stated as the insured sum of around 30 million euros, but could also be significantly higher. That could be the case in this case one of the biggest coups in German criminal history act.
More lockers broken into in North Rhine-Westphalia
Meanwhile, in Halle (Westphalia), which, like Gelsenkirchen, is in North Rhine-Westphalia, there has been another incident with bank lockers broken into. As the police reported that four lockers were said to have been broken into during the bank’s business hours on Tuesday. The amount of damage cannot yet be quantified. The affected customers have been contacted.
The police in Bonn had already been informed about two lockers that had been broken into on December 17th. A former employee of the affected savings bank branch is suspected of having stolen gold from the lockers.
Perpetrators took drills with them again
According to police, experts and investigators from other federal states are also reporting on the case in Gelsenkirchen to provide information. They refer, for example, to circulating recordings from a parking garage adjacent to the bank, through which the perpetrators broke into the bank. It shows masked men leaving the parking garage in a black vehicle. According to the police spokesman, it is still being checked whether a white van, which was also filmed in the parking garage, was also used by the perpetrators.
The special drill used, a so-called core drill, was not left at the crime scene. It is assumed that the device was taken back by the perpetrators, said the police spokesman.
