Overview
- Two weeks after the vault break‑in, Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen‑Buer reopened its self‑service foyer, while the branch and safe‑deposit area remain closed for evidence processing after roughly 3,100 boxes were emptied.
- Investigators are reviewing about 10,000 hours of video and hundreds of thousands of items from the site, saying the crew entered via a parking garage, drilled through a wall and used chemicals to obscure DNA as the alarm system’s status is examined, with no insider involvement established.
- A vault manufacturer says the attack indicates absent core‑drill protection and likely sensor gaps, arguing retrofits and periodic security audits could have reduced the time window available to the perpetrators.
- Affected customers are confronting safe‑deposit compensation caps of about €10,300, with attorneys reporting hundreds of clients, as the national Sparkassen association stresses ongoing security investments and acknowledges absolute prevention is not realistic.
- Separately, police report a flurry of frauds against seniors and private sellers—about €170,000 taken in Munich in one day, QR/TAN and remote‑access scams in West Saxony, thwarted and successful impostor cases in Berlin and Duisburg, and phishing losses in Thuringia and Franconia—while advising against using emailed links, urging platform payments, verification via known numbers and two‑factor authentication.