Germany: Over $30 Million Stolen In ‘Ocean’s Eleven-like’ Bank Robbery

A group of thieves broke into a bank vault using a large drill in the German city of Gelsenkirchen in what police officers reportedly compared to the Hollywood heist film Ocean’s Eleven.

The Gelsenkirchen police initially explained in an official statement that the break-in occurred at a savings bank building in the city’s Buer district.

According to the police, the perpetrators, still unidentified at press time, took advantage of the quiet Christmas holidays and used a large drill to break into a safe on the early hours of Monday morning, ransacking the deposit boxes contained therein and escaping through the same route.

The BBC reported on Tuesday that the thieves broke open more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes and stole an estimated $35 million worth of cash and valuables from the vault — with one police spokesman comparing the “very professionally executed” heist to Ocean’s Eleven. The break-in hole was discovered after a fire alarm was triggered.

On Tuesday, the police released a follow-up statement explaining that witnesses have come forward, and provided information about several men who were seen in the stairwell of an adjacent parking garage with large bags on the night hours of December 27-28, hours before the heist took place.

According to the statement, security footage from the parking garage shows a black Audi RS6 vehicle leaving the garage early Monday morning with masked individuals sitting on it. The vehicle’s license plate had previously been reported as stolen in Hanover.

The Gelsenkirchen police is asking individuals who are believed to have been affected by the theft at the bank branch to first contact the bank itself, who will forward the report to the police. 

Der Spiegel detailed on Tuesday that, based on information obtained by the magazine, investigators suspect that the perpetrators may be from the Netherlands — a hypothesis reportedly based on similar vehicles as the one seen in the parking garage footage used in past ATM bombings attributed to Dutch perpetrators.

The Cologne-based newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported on Wednesday morning that the stolen amount could be significantly higher than the initial $35 million worth of assets stolen — which, the newspaper asserted, would make it one of the biggest heists in German criminal history. It is estimated that more than 2,500 are victims of the robbery. Each safe deposit box is reportedly insured for 10,300 euro.

“We are assuming a mid-double-digit million euro figure,” a police spokesperson said.