Overview
- Five weeks after the break-in, the branch reopened to customers, but the safe-deposit vault remains sealed as a crime scene.
- Police have finished cataloging items left in the vault and report no hot lead on the perpetrators.
- A dedicated assistance site opened to help roughly 3,000 box holders compile detailed inventory lists for claims, yet only five appointments were booked on day one.
- The bank says it will reimburse proven losses up to €10,300 per customer, a limit many say falls far short of their holdings.
- Lawyer Daniel Kuhlmann says more than 600 clients have contacted his firm, three model lawsuits are filed in Essen, and some customers are demanding the board resign; the bank rejects allegations of security failures as unfounded.