The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Crime: Authorities seem to be registering more ATM blasts than ever before

2022-12-04T10:21:12.070Z


Injured pedestrians, metal parts in the children's room: According to a media report, German security authorities are reporting a record in the blasting of ATMs - with sometimes dramatic consequences.


Enlarge image

Blown up ATM in Göttingen (archive photo from March 11, 2021): 500 "completed and attempted crimes"

Photo: Stefan Rampfel / dpa

According to a report, around 450 ATMs have been blown up in Germany so far this year.

This was a record high for this crime, as the “Welt am Sonntag” reported.

The newspaper referred to participants in the conference of interior ministers (IMK), which took place in Munich until Friday.

Accordingly, fewer machines were blown up in previous years: 414 in 2020 and 381 in 2021. Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) spoke of 500 "completed and attempted offenses" nationwide this year.

The crimes are now increasingly being committed with explosives, the newspaper writes.

This is a new and worrying development: criminals used to use gas mixtures for attacks.

According to the report, the deeds have dramatic consequences: "Pedestrians have already been injured, metal parts smashed into children's rooms and houses were no longer habitable," said Oliver Huth, chairman of the Association of German Criminal Investigators (BDK) in North Rhine-Westphalia.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the current development in Germany is being accelerated by a displacement effect from the Netherlands: almost two thirds of the suspects registered by the Federal Criminal Police Office in 2020 and 2021 come from the neighboring country.

Because most Dutch ATMs are now equipped with paint bags or other security mechanisms, the automat crashers moved their raids to Germany years ago.

According to the newspaper, Minister Pistorius threatened to oblige banks by law to better protect their machines.

Europol had already declared in October that the explosions were increasing in Europe and were becoming more and more dangerous.

The police department is very concerned about the increasing violence, said a spokeswoman: "Extremely heavy explosives are being used more and more often, even buildings collapse and innocent people are killed."

jpz/dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-12-04

You may like

News/Politics 2024-01-31T17:49:41.261Z
News/Politics 2024-01-31T17:49:47.474Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.