- Germany has a disproportionately high number of ATMs, as locals prefer to use cash to bank cards.
- Thieves are taking advantage of this, blowing up the cash machines to steal money.
Exploding cash machines are becoming a familiar sight in Germany, as a wave of crime has hit the country, Reuters reported.
The town of Ratingen, near Düsseldorf, saw two such explosions on the same day last month, as thieves targeted one Santander bank branch and one Deutsche Bank branch.
But the problem has spread around the country, with the Federal Ministry of the Interior saying that there were 496 ATM explosions across Germany in 2022, according to German news outlet Capital.
Cash is king in Germany, and many Germans prefer to use it over bank cards. The country has 53,000 ATMs, per Reuters, and investigators believe that this, as well as Germany's highways, or Autobahns, much of which have no speed limit, are why the thieves are targeting the country.
According to Reuters, investigators believe Dutch criminal gangs are likely to be behind the attack, stealing money from machines before speeding away to the Dutch border.
As such, the North West of Germany is seeing the majority of these attacks, with the the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on the receiving end of 47 incidents so far this year, Reuters reported.
According to a 2021 study by the Deutsche Bundesbank, respondents in Germany used banknotes and coins to make 58% of their payments for goods and services.
This is in stark contrast to the USA, where only 14% of people use cash for most or all of their payments, according to the Pew Research Centre.