http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0527/1224271226596.html
Robbers blow it big time, breaking bank but not safe
In this section »
* BP begins 'top kill' attempt to stop spill
* Sinking of Korean ship 'unacceptable provocation'
* Hungary ethnicity law 'is a threat' to Slovaks
* Peace accord could be struck rapidly if Israel understood it was in its interest, says Abbas
* Death toll nears 50 in hunt for drug lord
* Czechs face clear choice but poll too close to call
DEREK SCALLY in Berlin
MARIO KITZMANN prided himself on being a deep sleeper – at least until 2am on Tuesday. While he slept in the eastern German village of Malliss, thieves slipped into the bank across the street from his apartment. Their plan: blast the bank’s safe from its base and carry it away. But things didn’t work out that way.
“The bang was so loud that I jumped up and stood in the bed,” said Mr Kitzmann (32). He ran to his window and saw police cars and fire engines screech to a halt across the road in the bank car park. Or, to be accurate, the car park of the former bank.
The thieves had over-estimated the amount of explosives they would need for the job and, instead, blew up the building.
The single-storey building was reduced to its foundations: lumps of wall, piles of fibreglass insulation and wooden beams were all flung up to 50m from the site.
Police went to work immediately with sniffer dogs in case the thieves were trapped beneath the rubble, but the search ended inconclusively. Police believe the gang fled the scene after the explosion, leaving behind them, in flames, the red forklift truck intended as the getaway vehicle.
Police said the village had a lucky escape: the explosion severed the adjacent gas mains and could have caused a second, even more violent explosion.
“We’ve never had anything like this that I can remember,” said local police officer Ingo Renk. “The main thing is there were no fatalities.” As dawn broke, bank manager Volker Mahnke showed up at the site and began salvaging loose papers and files from the wreckage of his former branch.
The Volksbank sign was blasted clear of the site and, as firemen began to clear the rubble, they made an extraordinary discovery. Standing amid the ruins, utterly untouched, was the bank’s safe.
“I’ve never experienced anything as audacious as this, we have yet to digest it all,” said Mr Mahnke. “And I have to call the manufacturer of the safe and thank him for doing good work.”
