Germany has been popular with Dutch explosive squatters for years. This became clear on Thursday when the police raided 25 places in our country. Large quantities of explosives have been discovered in Den Bosch and Oss, intended for blowing up ATMs. It is not for nothing that those criminals prefer to tear to our eastern neighbors for this.
In the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, it was hit 182 times last year. This year the counter is already at 98. While hardly an ATM is blown up here in the Netherlands. The most important reason? Our ATMs are now more secure.
“The pizza slider method no longer works here.”
What makes Germany especially attractive for explosive squatters is the cash culture. Where we mainly use debit cards, people prefer to pay cash there. As a result, the ATMs are often well stocked. There is a good chance that you will collect loot of 50,000 to 100,000 euros with one thud.
There are fewer and fewer ATMs in the Netherlands and for a number of years these have also been turned off at night. As a result, one of the ways to make the automatons explode no longer works. “Many criminals use the pizza sliding method,” explains criminologist Jasper van der Kemp. “In addition, an explosive is slid into the cash drawer during the withdrawal, but it no longer opens at night.”
Since then, the young criminals in our country sometimes try with heavy fireworks. But that entails too many risks. “The ATM must then break in such a way that you can access the money,” says Van der Kemp. And sometimes they have to look for the cash cassette among the debris. While they want to be gone quickly.”
“Changing the rules at once takes a lot of effort.”
What also plays a role is that we are constantly looking at how the machines can be better secured. For example, with ink cassettes or glue capsules that pop open when the machine is inflated. “It remains unclear whether those methods are already being used,” says Van der Kemp. “Because that would destroy money and that is officially not allowed. But it can deter criminals.”
So better security. But why don’t our eastern neighbors do the same? According to Van der Kemp, they do try, but it is all a lot more difficult to organize there. “Where we switched to Geldmaat, there are still many different banks with their own payment terminals. The question is whether they should change all of them, or just in some places. And Germany has many federal states, so changing the rules at once takes a lot of effort.”
The police raided Den Bosch and Oss on Thursday morning. Three men from Den Bosch were arrested. They would be involved in explosions at ten ATMs in Germany. The loot was more than a million euros.
In this video you can see more about Thursday’s big police action.
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