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Police Confirm Manipulated Exit Door in Gelsenkirchen Vault Heist as 230 Investigators Press Case

Investigators face months of forensic sorting with alarm failures still unexplained after nearly all 3,256 safe‑deposit boxes were forced open.

Overview

  • Police say the burglars entered from a parking garage through a tampered escape door, drilled a roughly 40‑centimeter hole into the reinforced vault wall, and spread chemicals likely to hinder DNA recovery.
  • Forensic data show the first box was opened at 10:45 and the last at 14:44 on December 27, with the crime discovered on December 29 after earlier fire alarms produced no findings and the intrusion alarm remained silent.
  • A special task force of about 230 personnel is processing roughly 10,000 hours of video—about 8 terabytes—and cataloguing several hundred thousand items still lying in the vault and adjacent rooms.
  • Loss estimates have risen from the mid‑double‑digit millions to a potential triple‑digit million sum, many customers exceed the €10,300 statutory insurance limit, and lawyers are preparing lawsuits against the bank.
  • Authorities consider insider help a possibility but report no concrete suspicion or identified suspects, cautioning that the investigation will take time to isolate a decisive trace.