Amstelveen residents upright in bed after explosion under apartment: “As if a bomb fell”

The burglary is the talk of the day in the shopping street where the cash machine is in the wall, at the Ekoplaza supermarket to be precise. Residents of the flat above the shop visit each other. “We are perhaps one and a half meters away as the crow flies,” says Karin den Hartog. She lives in the apartment closest to the ATM.

Three bangs

The woman from Amstelveen was home last night and did not know what happened to her. “You think: what is this? It’s not a thunderstorm or a flare, because the bang was really gigantic. And before you can think that, the second bang comes again,” she tells NH.

Tonight it will not be just two bangs: “Then there was another gigantic bang and then you think: my children. My one daughter was sleeping above and the other lives further down the flat.” That is Daisy and she is also sitting upright in bed at that moment: “We really felt a vibration and the vases at my window fell over.”

Text continues below image.

A neighbor from a little further away was quite a bit scared last night. “It was such a loud bang. It was really not normal,” she says. “I thought a bomb had fallen somewhere.”

Miraculously, none of the apartments in the condominium were damaged. “Fortunately not, but it doesn’t make it any less scary,” says Karin. Her thoughts are now mainly with the owner and employees of Ekoplaza. “They are left with the debris and damage.”

Damage to shops

Despite the extensive damage, the store was able to open its doors around noon. Much to the relief of local residents who wanted to do their New Year’s Eve shopping there today. Manager André informs NH that he responded to the alarm last night. Employees from the head office came to help clear the rubble.

The adjacent oliebollen stall could also not open at first, because a lot of debris and glass had flown in that direction. Later they were still able to sell oliebollen on the penultimate day of the year. Shops across the road were also damaged by the enormous force of the explosion, but were able to open as normal this morning.

Mayor Tjapko Poppens was present early this morning to encourage entrepreneurs, but also local residents. “It is particularly intense when you wake up in the middle of the night with a huge bang. People are very shocked.”

Local residents are not only shocked, but also angry at the criminals who blew the place up last night. “I find this very criminal and deeply sad. This means that you cannot actually have an ATM,” says a woman who lives a little further away.

Karin is also angry: “They just don’t know what they are doing to people. They are putting lives at risk for those few damn cents. The burglary ultimately did not yield anything for the criminals. They left empty-handed.”

Less popping

The number of explosive raids in the Netherlands has fallen enormously in recent years. According to the Dutch Banking Association, 71 explosive raids were committed in 2019, while there were only nine last year.

This is because banks have invested heavily in measures, such as making money unusable by smearing it with liquid after an explosion. That is why criminals now usually focus on neighboring countries, such as Germany.

The manager of the Geldmaat ATM that was blown up last night informed NH that the machine was out of use at the time of the hack. According to Poppens, the municipality can do little to prevent explosive attacks. “It is up to building owners whether they rent out a piece of land to ATMs.”

Dance started

Diagonally opposite the Ekoplaza, there was an ATM in the wall for about 40 years. That wall belongs to the tobacco and gambling shop Cigo de Posthoorn. Owner Hans Poll is happy that he recently had the thing removed and now the dance is over.

“It was the best choice of the year. I had sleepless nights at the time because of all those explosions. The devastation is enormous and if I had to close the doors on a day like this during the New Year’s Eve draw, it would be a disaster.”