Robbers stole items worth up to $105bn from safe-deposit boxes held at a German retail bank in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia state, during the Christmas holiday, German police said on Tuesday.
The German news agency dpa reported that it may rank among the biggest thefts in the country’s history.
What happened and what was stolen?
The thieves broke into a branch of Sparkasse bank in the city of Gelsenkirchen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, from an adjacent parking garage, according to the police, at some point when businesses were closed for the Christmas holiday.
The German state is home to museums and Gothic architecture. Its capital, Dusseldorf, is known for its shopping boulevard and the Rheinturm telecommunications tower.
Using a large drill, the thieves bore through a thick concrete wall of the bank and gained access to an underground vault room. Then, they forced open some 3,000 safe deposit boxes, before making off with cash, gold and jewellery.
A police spokesperson likened the break-in to the movie, Ocean’s Eleven, and described it as “very professionally executed”, according to the AFP news agency.
“A great deal of prior knowledge and/or a great deal of criminal energy must have been involved to plan and carry this out,” the spokesperson told the agency.
The bank said “more than 95 percent of the 3,250 customer safe deposit boxes were broken into by unknown perpetrators.”
Police say they were alerted to the robbery when a fire alarm went off on Monday, but have not confirmed exactly when the robbery took place.
How much are the stolen items worth?
Investigators estimate the total value of the stolen items to be anything between 10 and 90 million euros ($11.8m and $105.7m), according to police spokesperson Thomas Nowaczyk.
Police said the average insured value of each deposit box was more than 10,000 euros ($11,700). However, officers said several victims have reported that the contents of their boxes were worth significantly more than the insured amounts.
What do we know about the robbers?
No arrests have been made, and the thieves remain at large.
Security camera footage showed a black Audi RS 6 leaving the bank’s parking garage during the early hours of Monday, with masked people inside.
The police said the car’s licence plate had been stolen earlier in the city of Hanover, about 200km (124 miles) northeast of Gelsenkirchen, where the robbery took place.
How have bank customers reacted?
On Tuesday, angry customers rallied outside the bank branch, demanding answers about the robbery from the bank.
The police spokesperson told AFP that the bank branch remained closed for security reasons after threats were made against bank employees.
“We’re still on site, keeping an eye on things,” AFP quoted the police spokesperson as saying, adding “the situation has calmed down considerably.”
How has the bank responded?
The bank is writing to notify all customers affected by the robbery. It also set up a customer hotline for those affected.
It said it is also working with insurers to determine how compensation claims will be handled.
“We are shocked,” said bank press spokesman Frank Krallmann. “We are standing by our customers and hope that the perpetrators will be caught.”
Which other significant heists have happened recently?
October 2025: The Louvre, France
In late October, a gang of robbers broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris and stole eight Napoleonic pieces of jewellery in less than seven minutes. The thieves made off on motorcycles laden with eight items dating back to the Napoleonic era, dropping a ninth on their way out.
The stolen items of jewellery were estimated to be worth $102m.
So far, French authorities have arrested eight suspects over the Louvre heist.
The first four suspects, three men and a woman, were arrested, formally investigated and charged.
The last four suspects taken into custody are two men aged 38 and 39, and two women aged 31 and 40, from the Paris area. They are being investigated as possible accomplices. The names of the suspects arrested have not been made public.
September 2025: Museum of Natural History, France
On September 30, a 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona on suspicion of stealing six gold nuggets from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The gold nuggets were worth about 1.5 million euros ($1.76m).
The woman was arrested while trying to dispose of melted gold – it is unclear who melted it or how. The museum’s alarms and security system had been disabled in a cyberattack, but it is also unclear whether the thieves were also behind that cyberattack or whether the theft was opportunistic.
March 2024: Los Angeles cash site, United States
Thieves stole at least $30m in cash from a GardaWorld facility in Los Angeles over the Easter weekend.
GardaWorld is a global security company which provides services such as facilities management, property management and cash handling.
Local media called the heist one of the biggest cash heists in LA history. There has not been a public announcement indicating that the burglars have been caught.
