Bank robbery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A bank robbery or bank robbery refers to a robbery on a credit institution with the aim of stealing cash and other valuables. Although the legal term robbery actually presupposes the use or threat of violence , it is also used colloquially for break-ins in banks.

Legal classification

In Germany, depending on the course of events , bank robbery is legally classified either as robbery or as predatory extortion . However, the sentence is identical in both cases: The minimum sentence is one year imprisonment . If the perpetrator uses a weapon , this increases to five years.

history

United States

The first bank robbery in the United States occurred on the night of August 31st to September 1st, 1798 in the Bank of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia . $ 162,821 was stolen from the bank vault. Because there was no evidence of violence, authorities assumed it was insiders . Some suspects were immediately jailed and prosecuted, but the real culprits were Isaac Davis and a partner. A few days after the bank robbery, Davis's partner fell victim to a yellow fever epidemic that broke out in Philadelphia that summer.

One of the most famous bank robbers is the Dalton Brothers , who, after years of moderate success as farm workers, discovered their talent for railroad robberies at the end of the 19th century and made criminal history in the town of Coffeyville on October 5, 1892 by trying to rob two banks at the same time. Two of the four brothers were killed.

The couple Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow) were also well-known bank robbers and traveled through the southwestern United States during the Great Depression . They robbed banks and usually wreaked havoc on raids.

On April 11, 1957, a bank (then still hidden) camera was installed in a bank in a bank in Cleveland , Ohio . A day later, the bank was robbed and the camera was triggered along with the alarm. Another day later, the perpetrators could be identified and arrested based on the pictures.

On May 9, 1980, a bank robbery developed into one of the largest shootings in US history when five heavily armed men attacked the Security Pacific National Bank in Norco , Riverside County , California . While leaving the bank and following the chase, the fugitives destroy or damage 33 patrol cars and force a police helicopter to make an emergency landing. In rural areas, they even manage to lure the pursuing police into an ambush. Two perpetrators and one police officer are killed and eight other officers are injured. It was not until May 11 that the police succeed in arresting the three fugitives Christopher Gregory Harven (30), Russell Harven (27) and George Wayne Smith (28). The film Rapid Fire - The Day of No Return is based on this incident.

A failed bank robbery on February 28, 1997 went down in American criminal history as the most violent and momentous shootout between police and criminals under the name North Hollywood Shootout. That day, two heavily armed men, Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr., 26, and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30, attacked Bank of America at the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Archwood Street in North Hollywood, California . When entering the bank, however, the two are seen by an LAPD patrol, which then calls for reinforcements. The two bank robbers wear balaclavas, have full-body bulletproof armor, black clothing over them and are armed with fully automatic assault rifles. With the loot, the perpetrators then leave the building, which is already surrounded by the police, and open fire. After a seven-minute, violent exchange of fire against more than 50 officers, one of the perpetrators succeeds in putting a vehicle into operation in front of the bank and escaping at walking pace, with his accomplice accompanying the vehicle on foot and keeping the police at bay. The fugitives can neither be pushed off the street nor stopped for the next 35 minutes. Suddenly the perpetrator, who was on foot, leaves the vicinity of the escape vehicle and fights alone with the police. When his assault rifle fails, he judges himself. His accomplice dies three blocks away in a gun battle with a SWAT team. A total of twelve police officers and eight passers-by were injured, some seriously. Their body armor and weapons can be viewed at the Los Angeles Police Department Museum. The film 44 Minutes - The Hell of North Hollywood is based on this event.

Germany

Much of the bank robbery since 2010 has taken place with the robbers trying to blow up the ATMs. Here (2015) they used too much explosives.

In 1965, Gisela Werler was the first woman in Germany to attack a bank.

On August 4, 1971, the first bank robbery and hostage-taking took place in Munich . Two people were killed in the exchange of fire with the police (one hostage, one perpetrator).

The start of the hostage-taking of Gladbeck , which attracted nationwide attention in 1988, was also a bank robbery.

The bank robbery in Berlin-Zehlendorf in 1995 is probably the most spectacular that has ever occurred in Germany. He attracted worldwide attention because of his unusual approach (breaking into the bank through a specially dug tunnel).

The oldest bank robbers in Germany are the members of the grandpa gang , three elderly men aged 64, 73 and 74 who stole more than one million euros from 14 bank robberies from 1989 to 2005. They were each heavily armed. You have now been sentenced by the Hagen Regional Court (Westphalia).

On January 14, 2013, hitherto unknown perpetrators broke into the vault of a Volksbank branch in Berlin-Steglitz through a 45-meter-long underground tunnel, which they had probably been building for over a year, and stole cash and valuables worth over € 10 million.

Blasting ATMs

Since the 2000s, attacks on ATMs with different regional focuses have been increasing in Germany and Central Europe . While the "conventional" bank robbery crime is basically on the decline, the explosion on ATMs as a form of "modern bank robbery" is increasing, particularly in rural areas, with endangering people being accepted.

On June 9, 2005, perpetrators broke into the bank in Breitenfelde ( Duchy of Lauenburg district ) for the first time , sprayed the cameras so that they could work undisturbed, fed gas into the ATM and blew it up. This type of attack has been repeated several times since then.

Austria

In 2017 there were cases in which ATMs were torn from their anchoring with the help of vehicles and ropes or the like and then transported away.

  • February 2013: Doren, Vorarlberg
  • December 2016: Falkenstein, Lower Austria
  • February 2017: Söding-St. Johann, Styria
  • March 2017: Eberstalzell, Upper Austria
  • April 2017: Kittsee, Bgld
  • May 2017: Munderfing, Upper Austria
  • June 2017: Meeting, Ktn
  • July 2017: Köttmannsdorf, Ktn

The ATMs affected by theft were also in the entrance areas of shops.

Countermeasures

While in the German-speaking countries the financial institutions largely refrain from permanently present security guards, security guards in the USA and also in southern European countries, sometimes placed in front of the banks, are part of everyday appearance. Not least due to pressure from insurance companies, however, many banks have tightened security measures in order to reduce or prevent bank robberies. It is now common practice at many banks:

  • increased and reinforced so-called alarm packages , i.e. GPS location transmitters and live images from the financial institutions in the responsible police stations
  • digitized video systems
  • reduced cash holdings
  • Alarm buttons that are not visible to perpetrators and can be secretly pressed
  • Keeping registration money ready (banknotes whose serial numbers are noted and which are not used in the cash register, but are only kept in the cash register as evidence in the event of robbery .)
  • Prepared banknotes that discolor after a certain time and thus identify
  • Bundles of money prepared with security parcels that explode on the run and release paint or tear gas
  • Training of staff on how to behave in a bank robbery. Above all, this is intended to avoid the robber's use of firearms and thus personal injury and the associated claims for recourse .
  • Monetary amounts above a certain amount are only released by the computer system after more than a minute - this cannot be circumvented and leads to small delays

statistics

Bank robberies were particularly widespread in Germany towards the end of the 20th century. While around 200 such crimes were recorded annually across Germany at the end of the 1960s, there were already almost 1,700 cases in the same period in the early 1990s. The peak of 1624 raids was recorded in 1993. Recently, the number of bank robberies has been falling again.

In 2009 there were a total of 326 robberies on financial institutions across Germany, 91 of which were unsuccessful. Compared to 2003, when 767 cases (173 attempts) were registered, the number of offenses has more than halved. In 2014 only 244 cases were recorded. The clearing-up rate, which was around 60% for much of the 1990s, has recently increased noticeably. The related value for 2009 was 70.6%. In the record year 2007 even 84.4% could be reported. This development is particularly due to the widespread installation of surveillance cameras .

A downward trend can also be seen in the USA . Whereas in 2004 there were still 7,556 crimes in which a total of almost 64 million US $ were looted, in 2009 there were still 5,943 cases (including 429 attempts) with a total loot of just under 46 million US $, of which a good 8 million US $ were recovered later become. After the attacks in 2009, 3,573 of the at least 7,344 people involved were identified. 1,337 of them were drug addicts and 665 had previously been found guilty of at least one time by a court of robbery, burglary or theft from a bank. A total of 140 people were injured (27 of whom were the perpetrators), 94 were taken hostage and 21 people were killed (each of the perpetrators). 3,269 of the acts were carried out as so-called “note jobs”. The person behind the counter is inconspicuously handed a slip of paper with the request so that the whole process is not noticed by other customers if possible. This should reduce the likelihood of actual use of force and improve the chances of escape.

In Vienna , on average, slightly more than half of bank robberies are resolved, although the number of crimes has generally decreased since 2007 and a decline in the propensity to use violence can be observed. Of the then interrogated perpetrators, 98 percent cite gambling debts as a motive, with many also consuming drugs or alcohol. In most cases, however, the loot is not enough to pay off the gambling debts. The number of those who got into trouble through no fault of their own, for example by losing their jobs, is low. Naturally, nothing can be said about the typology of successful bank robbers.

Consequences for the victims

Victims of bank robberies, customers and employees, often suffer severe trauma , which is accompanied by a chronic feeling of insecurity, even long after the time of the actual robbery . Bank employees are often unable to work for a long time because they cannot process what they have experienced.

Known bank robbers

The following bank robbers were also known beyond the region:

Quotes

See also

literature

  • Klaus Schönberger (ed.): Vabanque. Bank robbery, theory, practice, history . Berlin / Göttingen 2000.
  • Lawrence R. Kirchner: Robbing banks. An American History. 1831-1999 . Da Capo Press, 2000, ISBN 1-885119-64-X .
  • Deborah Lamm Weisel: Bank Robbery (PDF, 610 kB), Problem-Oriented Guides for Police, Problem-Specific Guides Series No 48, US Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, March 2007, ISBN 1-932582-78- 9 .

Single receipts

  1. ↑ ST. CLAIR SAVINGS AND LOAN HOLDUP. In: The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University, 1997, accessed March 1, 2010 .
  2. ↑ Ulla Reinhard: Volksbank offers high rewards after tunnel coup. In: www.morgenpost.de. Retrieved December 27, 2016 .
  3. ^ Christian Schwerdtfeger: North Rhine-Westphalia: ATM explosions - the modern bank robbery. In: RP ONLINE. Retrieved December 28, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Attack on ATM - bank robbers blow up half the house . In: BILD.de . ( bild.de [accessed on December 28, 2016]).
  5. ↑ Bank robbers blow up ATMs more and more often - WELT. In: THE WORLD. Retrieved December 28, 2016 .
  6. ↑ http://www.vol.at/bankomatdiebstahl-von-doren-geklaert/3496708
  7. ↑ http://www.noen.at/mistelbach/falkenstein-bankomat-coup-das-seil-riss-ab/32.180.064
  8. ↑ https://www.mein Bezirk.at/voitsberg/lokales/einbruch-in-soeding-stjohann-bankomat-aus-der-verankerung-gerissen-d2024151.html
  9. ↑ Upper Austria: ATM with car torn from its anchoring. In: kurier.at. March 22, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017 .
  10. ^ Burgenland: ATM torn from its anchoring with the help of a tractor. In: kurier.at. April 14, 2017, accessed December 30, 2017 .
  11. ↑ http://www.nachrichten.at/oberoesterreich/Diebe-rissen-mit-Auto-Bankomat-aus-Verankerung;art4,2575823
  12. ↑ http://www.krone.at/kaernten/bankomat-aus-foyer-gerissen-coup-in-treffen-story-574404
  13. ↑ Another ATM in Carinthia cracked. In: DiePresse.com. July 28, 2017, accessed January 8, 2018 .
  14. ↑ File number XY ... unsolved, broadcast on October 28, 1994
  15. ↑ Guido Mingels: Everything used to be worse: bank robberies . In: Der Spiegel . tape 5 , January 30, 2016 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 1, 2017]).
  16. ↑ Guido Mingels: Everything used to be worse: bank robberies . In: Der Spiegel . tape 5 , January 30, 2016 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 1, 2017]).
  17. ↑ Police crime statistics - basic table - without crime scene distribution - from 1987 p. 28, key 211100
  18. ↑ Bank Crime Statistics 2009 ( Memento of April 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ Bank robbers: 98 percent addicted to gambling. In: wien.orf.at. August 8, 2014, accessed December 10, 2014 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Bank robbery  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations