Exploding ATMs is a contentious issue in the German town of Ratingen.
Last month, two were detonated at dawn at Santander and Deutsche Bank locations nearby the main square of the Duesseldorf district, across the street from one another.
In an act that may look prophetic in hindsight in other nations, inhabitants of the apartments above Santander tried unsuccessfully to have the machines removed a year ago out of fear that they would be raided.
However, robbers in Germany are blowing up ATMs at a rate of more than one every day.
According to the interior ministry, attacks have increased by more than 40% since 2019, and analysts attribute the rise to two variables.
The biggest economy in Europe has 53,000 ATMs, which is a disproportionately large number given Germans’ predilection for cash over bank cards. Additionally, the nation has a vast network of autobahns, many of which have no posted speed limits.
Only 70 kilometers separate Ratingen from the Dutch border, and detectives believe that Dutch gangs are mostly responsible for the attacks, which send glass flying, force building facades to collapse, and cause money cartridges to break open.
In 2021, when 392 ATM explosions were reported, thieves made off with roughly 20 million euros ($A33 million), a number that increased to 496 in 2022. In 2023, there have been 47 occurrences reported to police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which includes Ratingen, and has been the target of the attacks.
According to Dutch authorities, the frequency of ATM attacks is decreasing in the Netherlands, in part because of security measures like adhesive that renders cash barriers within ATMs useless.
Dutch cash machine thieves are therefore crossing the border, and according to German police, they may be responsible for up to 80% of attacks in Germany since 2018.
500 men are thought to be involved; operating in mutating groups as new members replace those who are apprehended, according to Dutch authorities. Six Dutch citizens were accused of creating explosions, theft, and property damage by Frankfurt prosecutors this week.
Nearly a month after the bombings, Santander’s front was still boarded up on Thursday. The sign for Deutsche Bank was still broken, and a notice requested customers to be tolerant while the ATMs were out of commission for maintenance.
Additionally, Germany is collaborating with authorities in Belgium, France, and Europol to fight the cash machine crime wave. Requests for comment from the partner authorities went unanswered.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser this week encouraged banks to strengthen safety measures for ATMs, noting that ATM raids put lives at peril.
Santander and Deutsche both claimed they were constantly enhancing ATM security, but German banks were hesitant to take generalized measures.
Sites have varying dangers, according to a representative of the nation’s financial institutions’ umbrella lobbying organization, Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft. There isn’t presently a universally applicable answer.
