Wenn sie flüchten, bleibt ein Trümmerfeld aus Scherben und Schrott zurück: Immer häufiger werden Geldautomaten in die Luft gejagt. Baden-Württemberg gehört zu den Hotspots in Deutschland.
According to the State Criminal Police Office, ATM bombers in Baden-Württemberg struck 27 times in the southwest in the first half of this year alone, 10 cases more than in the first six months of last year (archive photo).
René Priebe/dpa
Trotz sinkender bundesweiter Zahlen haben es Geldautomaten-Sprenger immer stärker auf Beutezüge in Baden-Württemberg abgesehen. Allein im ersten Halbjahr dieses Jahres schlugen sie nach Angaben des Landeskriminalamts 27 Mal im Südwesten zu. Das waren 10 Fälle mehr als in den ersten sechs Monaten des vergangenen Jahres.
However, the explosions were not always successful. Sometimes the robbers left without taking anything, and several times the explosions failed to go off.
According to the state's security report, 42 cases were registered throughout Baden-Württemberg last year. That was an increase of almost 24 percent.
The perpetrators stole around 1.9 million euros, and the material damage was significantly higher at 4.3 million euros. Nationwide, however, the number of ATMs blown up fell. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recorded 461 cases, 7.1 percent fewer than in 2022, when a record high of 496 ATM bombings was reached. The BKA attributes the decline to better cooperation between the police at home and abroad.
Money thieves are becoming more and more brutal
However, investigators believe that the perpetrators' methods have become more dangerous. According to the BKA's situation report, around 90 percent of the explosions nationwide were carried out using solid explosives. This means that the criminals' methods have changed significantly in recent years – in 2019, according to the BKA, gas or gas mixtures were still predominantly used.
Solid explosives such as pyrotechnics or military explosives cause considerable damage. In addition, emergency services can hardly assess the effect of flying debris and splinters.
Trials and explosions cause a stir
This year, several explosions and trials relating to the crimes in Baden-Württemberg have made headlines. A month ago, the Bamberg Regional Court sentenced 15 men, mainly from the Netherlands, to prison terms ranging from one year to nine months on probation and five years and eleven months in prison. They had admitted to blowing up numerous ATMs in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and investing millions in cash.
Almost two weeks earlier, a money robber who had caused the death of an innocent 45-year-old man during a breakneck escape from the police had been sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. The man, as part of a trio – also from the Netherlands – had, according to the Karlsruhe Regional Court, stolen 41,000 euros in cash in November after an explosion in Wiernsheim near Pforzheim. During the subsequent escape at high speed across the country, the then 30-year-old drove the getaway car the wrong way onto the Autobahn 6 and caused a fatal crash.
Perpetrators are repeatedly suspected to be in the Netherlands
The perpetrators' trails repeatedly lead to the Netherlands. According to the State Criminal Police Office, there are solid structures there. The gangs are driven by greed and strike professionally, said LKA President Andreas Stenger at the end of the year. In the Netherlands, however, electronic card payments are becoming increasingly common, which is why the number of ATMs there has decreased. The machines that still exist and are increasingly better secured now only store small amounts.
According to a perpetrator profile by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office, a scene of several hundred people of North African origin living in Dutch cities such as Utrecht and Amsterdam is said to be behind the majority of the explosions.
Urgent letter from the mayor
Just last May, town hall chiefs from the Upper Rhine region raised the alarm and, in an urgent letter, demanded that the police make more efforts to curb the bombing of ATMs. The mayors of Bad Krozingen, Staufen, Breisach, Hartheim and Heitersheim wrote to the Freiburg police chief that it was unacceptable that banks were forced to use private security services to protect the ATMs. They needed additional police forces in the region south of Freiburg.
