German Railways – With color bombs against machines geezer – Süddeutsche.de

German Railways – With color bombs against machines geezer – Süddeutsche.de

• The ticket machines railway are popular with criminals in 2014 alone caused losses of nearly seven million euros.
• Now will the web equip the machine with ink cartridges. . If the cashbox shaken, sprayed paint on the bills – and makes them worthless

By Daniela Kuhr

A certain amount of care can be the four men not deny: To learn how the ticket machines of German work path in detail, they stole two smaller stations initially two complete units. In this way, they could alone give an overview of the security technology and develop a method how such machines are allowed to leave in a few minutes. The effort paid off for them: 80 machines cracked the four in the months that followed nationwide at stations – until they were caught by the Federal Police

Such cases know the track well enough: are to their regret. ticket machines extremely popular with criminals; especially devices to small stations where no video cameras are installed and few travelers come. Last year alone, 370 ticket machines were broken nationwide. Too many, is the web and therefore decided to strike back, in the truest sense of the word: exploding with color cartridges. This Tuesday it represents the new security concept in Berlin.

According to around half of the 7,000 ticket machines are equipped in the coming years with color cartridges, about a thousand devices later this year. The railway will the perpetrators to spoil the business, like so: If the cashbox bumped or shaken in the machine, “bursts a color cartridge and injected at high pressure, non-detachable color on the bills,” says Gerd Neubeck, security chief of the web, the Süddeutsche Zeitung . “The money is worthless, embarking so pointless.”

The method has the state-owned company already tried a few sites since early 2013. Some break the machines, others take the crowbar

Although the money after the explosion of color cartridge for the web itself worthless, but the damage the company lies in these deeds anyway less in the theft as in the destruction of the machine. Replace and build such a device together with its leads, costs about EUR 30 000 – while it is in the machine usually only a tiny fraction of that amount of cash. The reason is that the devices are emptied regularly and prefer to pay more and more customers their tickets with card as cash. In contrast, the mass departure of machines at the train last year has caused damage of 6.7 million euros.

The perpetrators go rather diverse ago. While some gas to initiate and blow up the machine, put on the other crowbar or a drill. Or go with a nondescript white Werkstattwagen directly to the device to simulate maintenance. If you are caught, the risk of severe punishment. The head of the Gang of Four, about a 35 year old convicted welders and metal workers, the Bonn District Court sentenced last year due to heavy volume theft to five and a half years in prison.