The spectacular multimillion-dollar robbery in Germany that no one noticed

Hole in the wall opened by thieves to enter Gelsenkirch Police branch The case was described as the most “spectacular” bank robbery in Germany in years. In the final days of 2025, on a quiet weekend just after Christmas, a group of thieves broke into a Sparkasse bank branch in the western city of Gelsenkirchen, drilling into a wall with an industrial drill. They stole more than 3,000 safes and escaped with millions of euros. More than a month later, the police have still not arrested any suspects — and are asking for any witnesses to come forward to help with the investigation. Watch the videos trending on g1 For the bank’s customers, some of whom say they have lost their life savings, family jewels and valuables, this is a time of anger, confusion and shock. There is a strong feeling that trust in institutions has been shaken. The case raised all sorts of difficult questions, and some of them were clarified recently by the Interior Minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul. Why didn’t anyone realize what was happening? Was it a crime committed by someone on the inside? Why didn’t anyone hear the drill and how did the thieves know exactly where the safe was? Were the bank’s security systems too weak? Police believe thieves entered the building through a neighboring parking lot Reuters Investigators believe the thieves probably broke into the Nienhofstrasse branch through an adjacent parking lot in the Buer neighborhood. The hypothesis is that the criminals have corrupted an exit door between the parking lot and the bank. Under normal circumstances, the door could not be opened from the outside, but the gang managed to prevent it from closing properly, allowing them “unrestricted access from the parking lot to the Sparkasse building.” From there, police believe they bypassed several security systems and reached a file room next to the safe, in the bank’s basement. That was when they assembled the drill and made a 40 cm wide hole in the wall that gave access to the strong box, where the safes were located. View of the safe and the hole opened by the criminals Gelsenkirch Police Authorities estimate that the robbery took place sometime between Saturday December 27th and Monday December 29th and believe that the thieves were almost caught moments before reaching the safes. Shortly after 6am on December 27, the Gelsenkirchen fire department and a private security company received a fire alert from the bank, which may have been triggered by the robbers. Police and 20 firefighters arrived at the agency at 6:15 a.m. “but found nothing to indicate damage,” police said in a statement. The fire alarm came from the safe, revealed Herbert Reul. But firefighters were unable to enter because it was locked with a rolling steel door. Still according to Reul’s report, the agents did not see “smoke, the smell of fire or damage”, so they “concluded that it was a false alarm”, which, according to him, was not uncommon. To search the agency at that time, according to him, the police would need a warrant. As Reul told a commission of the state parliament, it was the fire department that had the prerogative to act in situations like that. Once inside the vault, the thieves opened almost all of the 3,250 safes inside, taking money, gold and jewelry. Reul stated that the bank’s computer systems show that the first safe was broken into at 10:45 a.m. on December 27 and the last at 2:44 p.m. It’s unclear whether they were able to open most of the safes within four hours or whether the computers stopped recording data. Witnesses later told police they saw several men on the parking lot steps carrying large bags during the night of December 28. Authorities say they do not know exactly how much was stolen. The German press estimates that the value could have reached up to 100 million euros (around R$618 million). Police released images of the chaos left inside the safe on December 29 Gelsenkirch Police In photos and videos from parking security cameras released by police, men appear with their faces covered and two cars, a black Audi RS 6 and a white Mercedes Citan. Both had fake license plates. The robbery was only discovered on December 29, when another fire alarm went off at 3:58 am on Monday and firefighters returned to the bank — and found a scene of chaos. Security camera footage from December 29 shows three hooded men with two vehicles Gelsenkirch Police Herbert Reul said the image was of a “dump”, with more than 500,000 items scattered across the ground — the contents of the safes the thieves had left behind. Police reported that many items were damaged with water and chemicals thrown by criminals. Since then, authorities have been carefully searching the site for clues and trying to identify who each item belongs to. When news of the robbery broke, around 200 customers gathered outside the looted branch, asking to enter the establishment, whose entrance was cordoned off by police. Joachim Alfred Wagner, 63, said he lost not only gold worth tens of thousands of euros, but also jewelry that belonged to his father and grandparents. He had rented the safe after his apartment had been broken into several times and thought his valuables were finally safe. “I cried with rage,” said he, who is one of the first people to file a lawsuit against the bank, seeking compensation for what his lawyer, Daniel Kuhlmann, called “negligent security.” Another of the criminals caught by security cameras in the parking lot Gelsenkirch Police The bank reported that the contents of each safe are usually insured for a value of 10,300 euros (approximately R$64,000), it also said that it was a victim of the crime and that its facilities were “protected in accordance with recognized cutting-edge technology.” It is also known that another client had deposited 400 thousand euros (almost R$ 2.5 million) in cash from the sale of an apartment, an amount that would be destined for his retirement. Not all account holders, however, had official receipts for the contents of their safes, which makes it difficult to identify what was taken. “Not even Sparkasse knows what’s [nos cofres]because each person can put whatever they want in them,” said Herbert Reul. He emphasized that, in addition to the material damage, the psychological damage of those affected should not be underestimated. “We need to help the victims,” ​​he stated. “For many, this is more than just the loss of material possessions; this could also affect confidence in one’s own safety and… confidence in our order,” he argued. Police Chief Tim Frommeyer stated that they were dealing with “one of the biggest criminal cases in the history of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.” “My department and all its employees are aware of the magnitude of this case. The financial damage, uncertainty and frustration are profound!” Shortly after the robbery was discovered, the German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party held a rally in front of the bank, leading some to accuse the party of trying to incite trouble. German magazine Der Spiegel stated that the robbery had become a political issue and a symbol of something bigger than the crime itself: “The feeling that promises of security are empty, that institutions are failing, that at the end of After all, no one is being held accountable.”

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