Overview
- The Sparkasse branch in Gelsenkirchen-Buer remains closed for repairs as specialists have sealed the vault breach and staff, under notarial oversight, continue cataloging remaining items and contacting customers via letters and a hotline.
- Intruders entered through an archive room, drilled a large hole into the vault and opened almost all of the 3,250 safe-deposit boxes, with discovery triggered by a fire alarm and roughly 150 boxes left intact.
- Police say the loss likely totals a mid double-digit million-euro amount, with final figures pending inventories, and the bank notes standard insurance per box is about €10,300, with more than 100 customers carrying higher coverage.
- Released surveillance from December 29 shows three masked figures in the adjacent parking garage and two vehicles—a black Audi RS6 and a white Mercedes-Citan—believed to have used fake plates from Hannover and Beckum.
- Separately in Bonn, police confirmed gold missing from two safe-deposit boxes and said a 22-year-old former employee was briefly detained and released, and investigators currently rule out links to the Gelsenkirchen robbery.