Machine explosion
When a machine is blown up, ATMs , ticket machines , cigarette machines or other machines are blown open to steal cash or goods; it is a criminal offense .
Procedure of the perpetrator
Usually an ignitable mixture , for example air with propane gas or acetylene , is fed into a machine and detonated by means of a remote ignition system that is usually self-made. In other cases, solid explosives or pyrotechnics are used. The perpetrators are both professionals and amateurs, they act in gangs or as individual perpetrators, mostly under cover of darkness, the main times of the offense are the early morning hours when few passers-by are to be expected.
The perpetrators do not always get hold of the cash in the machines when they are detonated. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), money was only obtained in 48% of cases in 2017. The amount of damage caused by the explosions in many cases clearly exceeds the value of the loot obtained, in individual cases there is damage to property in the millions. The damaging effect on the environment and on people involved and not involved can be very great. The explosions lead to damage to buildings, endanger passers-by and, in the case of residential and commercial buildings, residents.
One of the perpetrators was fatally injured in a demolition in Wittighausen in Baden-Württemberg on September 17, 2013. On December 10, 2016, in the Boele von Hagen district, when an ATM was blown up, massive damage occurred in the bank branch and in a doctor's practice opposite. On March 21, 2017, a perpetrator was fatally injured when a ticket machine was blown up in Dortmund-Scharnhorst . In Ottersberg in Lower Saxony, on April 28, 2017, the demolition of ATMs in a residential and commercial building led to the evacuation of residents because of the feared risk of collapse. On March 15, 2018, a fire broke out in a bank branch in Espelkamp . On March 31, 2018, a residential and commercial building was massively damaged in Spenge , East Westphalia, when an ATM was blown up.
Countermeasures
Security measures include colored cartridges with robbery-stop inks for machines that color the banknotes in the event of an ATM blown up , systems for sucking off or neutralizing the gas introduced ( gas protection unit ) or strong mechanical safeguards for the safe. Another possibility is to close the machines outside.
development
In Germany, an ATM was blown up for the first time in 2005 in Cologne. The Federal Criminal Police Office recorded a significant increase in cases in the phenomenon of “ATM blowing up” since 2013, which is attributed to the successive displacement of perpetrators from the Netherlands due to preventive measures there. While there were 38 and 45 detonations of ATMs across Germany in 2011 and 2012, the number rose to 89 cases in 2013, 116 in 2014 and 157 in 2015. In 2016 there were 318 acts and in 2017 there were 268 explosions, of which 129 were successful. For 2018, the Federal Criminal Police Office reported 369 attempted or successful explosions.
Most of the crimes in 2015 were committed in the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (70 cases) and Lower Saxony (28 cases). It was noticeable that a large number of crime scenes were located near the border between the Netherlands and Germany. In the same year the phenomenon spread increasingly to Baden-Württemberg. In 2016, 136 of 318 explosions were carried out in the North Rhine-Westphalia area. An increase in the number of cases of vending machines being blown up was observed in 2016 in, among other places, Middle Franconia and Upper Bavaria ; Banks as well as ticket and condom machines were affected. The number of ATMs that were blown up in 2017 fell by 16% nationwide compared to the previous year, but increased in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The BKA justified this development through a relocation effect within Germany, as there were intensive police measures in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, such as the establishment of central investigative commissions and increased cooperation with the Dutch police, which were intended to reduce the attractiveness of this area for perpetrators. Nevertheless, North Rhine-Westphalia remained the focus of the attacks.
In 2019, a total of 349 ATMs were blown up in Germany. The amount of the loot was 15.2 million euros. Most of the explosions took place in North Rhine-Westphalia (105), Hesse (53) and Lower Saxony (45). A total of 132 suspects were identified nationwide.
Legal situation, investigations and convictions in Germany
The basic offense is the particularly serious case of theft according to § 243 StGB. In Germany, causing an explosive explosion is punishable under § 308 StGB. In coincidence mostly is the property damage .
After 21 cases of ATM blown up in Lower Saxony in 2015, the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office set up a 10-person special commission . The investigators assumed three groups of perpetrators. The largest group by far should come from the Netherlands and one from Poland , while a third group were imitators.
According to the findings of the Federal Criminal Police Office, ATMs are usually blown up by groups of perpetrators who share the workforce, with groups traveling and also regional groups. In 2017, the Federal Criminal Police Office became aware of 93 people as suspects. Of these, 75 people were classified as traveling offenders, most of them (46 people) from the Netherlands. Investigations in North Rhine-Westphalia showed that the perpetrators primarily come from metropolitan areas in the Netherlands and have a Moroccan migration background. They mainly use highly motorized vehicles or scooters to escape.
Dietmar Kneib from the investigation team of the State Criminal Police Office in North Rhine-Westphalia stated after the occasional arrest of Dutch people: "They live mainly in the suburbs of Utrecht and Amsterdam and have predominantly a North African migration background". Approximately 250 gang members are believed to be.
In one case on March 9, 2016, three perpetrators had an accident after being blown up in Meppen while escaping in a car, with one perpetrator being fatally injured. Another perpetrator has been tried at the Mönchengladbach Regional Court since May 2018 . He is charged with belonging to a gang that has committed around 100 automatic machine demolitions; including one in Neuenhausen with a loot of 120,000 euros.
In July 2017, the Hagen district court sentenced an offender to a prison term of six years and four months. In August 2017, the Cologne Regional Court sentenced two Dutch people of Moroccan origin to prison terms of five and a half years each for serious robbery and causing an explosive explosion. They had stolen a total of 470,000 euros through their deeds.
Web links
- Strackholt: Unknown people blow up ATMs at ndr.de from July 27, 2018 with video (25 seconds)
Individual evidence
- ^ Münsterdorf: Witnesses wanted to blow up automats!
- ↑ https://www.op-online.de/region/hanau/revision-nach-automatensprengung-verringerte-strafen-taeter-hanau-6637054.html
- ↑ a b Automatic machine detonation: More than six years imprisonment for gang member. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Dortmund: Suspected perpetrator dies in automatic demolition. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Blasting machine tears huge cracks in house - perpetrators apparently steal content from EC machine at NonstopNews from April 28, 2017
- ↑ Blasting machine: perpetrators set fire to Espelkamper Bank. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ ATM blown up - house destroyed. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Robbery Stop Colors. In: Federal Criminal Police Office . Retrieved August 6, 2018 .
- ↑ Blasting machines: the perpetrators arrive early in the morning. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Bank fears machine blown up. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ NRW badly affected: That is why the automatic blasting does not stop. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 26, 2018 ; accessed on June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Attacks on ATMs Federal Situation Report 2015 of the Federal Criminal Police Office (PDF, 733 kB)
- ↑ Attacks on ATMs Federal Situation Report 2016 of the Federal Criminal Police Office (PDF, 5 MB)
- ↑ a b c Attacks on ATMs Federal Situation Report 2017 of the Federal Criminal Police Office (PDF, 848 kB)
- ↑ a b press report Stuttgarter Nachrichten
- ↑ Failed ATM demolition: No loot. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Press report Nordbayern.de
- ↑ Cigarette machine blown up
- ↑ Condom machine stolen
- ↑ https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.zahlen-vom-bundeskriminalamt-deutlich-mehr-geldautomat-sprengungen-im-suedwesten.41cdb1c9-929c-43cf-926b-f298beb7e121.html
- ↑ LKA takes on central investigative management and sets up a special commission (Soko) as a press release from the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office on December 14, 2015
- ^ Arrest warrant after the ATM was blown up in Meppen at ndr.de from March 10, 2016
- ↑ Blowing up the machine: the process begins in May. Retrieved June 26, 2018 .