Fed II Star - March 19, 2006

REAL LIFE NEWS: DUTCH CRIMINALS BLOW UP ATMs

Criminals are very inventive, and as soon as one method of stealing money fails because security gets tightened up, they invent a different one. In the Netherlands, crooks have developed a new way of getting money from ATMs - they blow them up using explosive gas!

The method involves drilling holes in the machines and then filling them full of flammable gas and igniting it - preferably from a safe distance. Surprisingly, this rips open the machine without incinerating the cash inside. The technique is called plofkraak and has become increasingly popular. Last year there were 17 physical attacks on ATMs in the Netherlands: ten involved heavy vehicles ramming the machines, five involved gaseous explosives, and two used other types of explosives. Robbers in France and Germany have also used the gaseous explosive trick to break into ATMs.

But just as villains develop new methods to get around security features, so the banks come up with ways to foil the criminals. Banks in the Netherlands have started fitted air vents to ATMs so that the explosions no longer blow the machines apart. And so the arms race continues!