A BNP agent was taken hostage this Wednesday morning in Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) by several criminals, who forced him, under threat, to withdraw large sums of cash. money, learn 20 minutes from police sources. According to our information, the damage is currently estimated at around 170,000 euros. An investigation into kidnapping and forcible confinement by an organized gang, as well as theft under threat of a weapon by an organized gang, was opened by the public prosecutor’s office and entrusted to the BRB – the crime prevention brigade of the Paris judicial police -, in order to to identify and find the perpetrators, who fled.
The incident took place around 9 a.m. The victim, whose job is to ensure the supply and maintenance of ATMs (cash machines), told the police that he was approached by an armed man who forced him to get into a white van. Inside were three other individuals who, again according to his testimony, attached what looked like an explosive belt to him. They then forced their hostage to withdraw large sums of money from several BNP ATMs in Hauts-de-Seine, one in Bagneux, the other in Montrouge. The employee was finally released around 11 a.m. at the Kremlin Bicêtre.
Fake explosive vests
This is not the first time that criminals have attacked ATMs using this modus operandi. The first cases of this type date back ten years. More often than not, these explosive belts turned out to be fake and posed no danger. They were made using tactical vests, an old cell phone and modeling clay. But they seem realistic enough for the victim employee, in shock, to take no risks.
Particularly targeted in the 1960s or 1970s, the banks considerably raised their level of security: installation of airlocks at the entrance, anti-car-ram studs in the street… On the other hand, with the dematerialization of the means payment, the banks have less and less cash in their cash desks. Consequences: armed robberies, offenses punishable by assizes, have fallen sharply since 2009, as shown by the last digits published by the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security.
Dabiste, high-risk profession
Even if the number of ATMs continues to decrease, there were still some 48,710 in France in 2020, installed in 6,545 municipalities, according to the Banque de France. Each of them can contain several tens of thousands of euros. But attacking these machines with a car-ram or explosive can set off indelible ink jets on the banknotes. In the early 2010s, teams of criminals had the idea of targeting ATMs to force them to hand over the money from these ATMs. For this, they do not hesitate to follow them or to geolocate their vehicle with a beacon to identify where they live.
If many authors have been arrested and sentenced, the method has been copied several times by other teams. Faced with the resurgence of events, the government issued a decree in October 2012, authorizing ATMs to carry a weapon. They can also, in some places, join the team of cash couriers in the armored van.