This post is from the early days of this blog, and is quite humorous in a macabre way (sounds like something out of a Stephen King story).
For my regular readers, you know my opinion of ATM machines and their fees, so, please do not construe this posting as me condoning the destruction of ATM machines, but I am never surprised at what folks will do, just to not have to pay those “Not Your ATM” fees!
Blowing Up ATM Machines
In the Netherlands, criminals are stealing money from ATM machines by blowing them up (article in Dutch). First, they drill a hole in an ATM and fill it with some sort of gas. Then, they ignite the gas — from a safe distance — and clean up the money that flies all over the place after the ATM explodes.Sounds crazy, but apparently there has been an increase in this type of attack recently. The banks’ countermeasure is to install air vents so that gas can’t build up inside the ATMs.
So just don’t use the darn things, don’t blow them up!!!!
This has also happend to a bank near me in June last year (I live in northern Germany, NL is 4 hours away). One of those thieves was wearing a Scream movie mask when he was spraying black color to the surveillance camera. The explosion was way too heavy, causing big damage to the building and the money as well. Nonetheless they escaped with 10k Euros.
They came back to the same bank in September, this time the explosion was better dosed. IIRC they got caught at the beginning of the year.
I remember hearing years ago about criminals emptying ATM machines by pouring water in and floating the money out. I also heard about an event where they just cut the cables and took it away! Sometimes the saying that there’s no such thing as a smart criminal just ain’t true!