robber steal something As much as $105 billion worth of money was stored in a safe at a German retail bank in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, during the Christmas holidays, German police said on Tuesday.

German news agency dpa reported that it could be one of the biggest thefts in the country’s history.

What happened and what was stolen?

According to police, thieves broke into a branch of a savings bank in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, from a nearby parking lot while businesses were closed for the Christmas holidays.

Germany is home to museums and Gothic architecture. Its capital city, Düsseldorf, is famous for its shopping boulevard and the Rhine Tower telecommunications tower.

The thieves used a large drill to drill through the bank’s thick concrete wall and gain access to the underground vault room. They then forced open about 3,000 safes and made off with cash, gold and jewelry.

A police spokesman compared the break-in to the movie “Ocean’s Eleven” and said it was “very professionally executed,” AFP reported.

“The planning and execution of this operation must have involved a substantial amount of prior knowledge and/or a substantial amount of criminal energy,” the spokesperson told the agency.

“More than 95 per cent of 3,250 customer safes were broken into by unknown offenders,” the bank said.

Police said they were alerted to the robbery when a fire alarm went off on Monday, but have not yet confirmed when the robbery occurred.

How much are the stolen items worth?

Police spokesman Thomas Nowaczyk said investigators estimated the total value of the stolen items at between 10 and 90 million euros ($11.8 million to $105.7 million).

Police said the average insured value per safe was more than 10,000 euros ($11,700). However, some victims reported that the contents of their boxes were worth much more than the insured amount, officials said.

What do we know about bandits?

No arrests have been made and the thieves remain at large.

Surveillance video showed a black Audi RS 6 leaving a bank parking lot early Monday morning with a masked person inside.

Police said the car’s license plate had been stolen earlier in the city of Hannover, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of Gelsenkirchen, where the robbery took place.

How have bank customers reacted?

Angry customers rallied outside bank branches on Tuesday, demanding answers over the robbery.

A police spokesman told AFP that the bank branch remained closed for security reasons after threats were made to bank employees.

AFP quoted a police spokesman as saying: “We are still on the scene and closely monitoring the situation,” adding that “the situation has become quite calm.”

How do banks respond?

The bank is writing to notify all customers affected by the robbery. It has also set up a customer hotline for those affected.

The company said it is also working with insurance companies to determine how to handle compensation claims.

“We are shocked,” said bank spokesman Frank Krallmann. “We stand with our customers and hope the perpetrators are caught.”

What other major robberies have occurred recently?

October 2025: Louvre Museum, France

In late October, a group of robbers broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris and stole property Eight Napoleonic Works The jewelry takes less than seven minutes to complete. Thieves on a motorcycle stole eight items dating back to the Napoleonic era, leaving behind a ninth as they fled.

The stolen jewelry was estimated to be worth $102 million.

So far, French authorities have arrested eight suspects About the Louvre robbery.

The first four suspects, three men and one woman, have been arrested, formally investigated and charged.

The last four suspects arrested were two men from the Paris area, aged 38 and 39, and two women, aged 31 and 40. They are being investigated as possible accomplices. The names of the arrested suspects have not been released.

September 2025: French Museum of Natural History

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 are worth approximately 1.5 million euros ($1.76 million).

The woman was arrested while trying to handle the molten gold, and it’s unclear who melted it and how. The museum’s alarm and security systems were disabled in a cyber attack, but it’s unclear if thieves were also behind the attack or if the theft was opportunistic.

March 2024: Los Angeles Cash Site, USA

Thieves stole at least $30 million in cash from a GardaWorld facility in Los Angeles over the Easter weekend.

GardaWorld is a global security company providing facilities management, property management and cash handling services.

Local media called the robbery one of the largest cash robberies in Los Angeles history. There has been no public statement that the thieves have been caught.