Not promoting criminal activity just generally curious.
I used to work for a company in Australia that packed ATMs. A busy ATM stocked with 50s and 20s usually would hold $340k. We also packed some for a casino that held 100s and 50s and they were often packed with $650k.
40k what? Euros, US dollars, pesos, Czech koruna, Ukrainian hryvnia, rubles, Australian dollars, pound sterling?
In my country (in the eurozone), at most ATMs I see, the limit of what I can withdraw at once is € 400 (and I usually do withdraw that much so I do not have to withdraw very often). So € 40000 is enough for 100 people to withdraw their maximum between refillings. 100 people isn’t a lot, certainly not in busy locations.
Someone else posted a picture of USD 100000 in cash which gives you an idea of the volume.
Euros are approximately equal in value to US dollars for those who do not know this and have an idea what US dollars are worth.
This is what 100k in cash looks like:
It’s not that tricky to fit all that in an ATM. ATMs are built to be difficult to remove and get open but with the right tools anything that can be closed can also be opened. The trick is to do that without damaging the bills inside, which I imagine the news wouldn’t report on
You’d be surprised how insecure they are (or were) from the non-physical side. Check out Barnaby Jack’s talk from DefCon 18 (Jackpotting Automated Teller Machines Redux).
Do you have a link out of curiousity if not thats cool.
Came back to drop a link (sorry for the delay) and it seems others have already provided it. Dropping it here again just because it’s an amazing talk by an amazing dude that was taken too soon.
I have asked my bank just a few days ago if I can withdraw 10k at once. They raised my limit accordingly and said it is no problem at all with the ATM.
10k needs to be reported to federal authorities, which is annoying but not a big deal. They would someone prefer you to withdraw less, but they won’t tell you this as withdrawing just under 10k a few times to escape reporting is a bigger deal than a single larger withdrawal that must be reported. (come to think of it, this 10k number is 20 years old, probably changed since)
When dealing with that much money It is generally best to work electronically. There are logs of what happened so if there is trouble investigators can figure it out. Cash is anonymous and so if there are problems you have less ability to catch whoever stole it. I’m assume that your need for money is legal of course.
What authority are you thinking about?
The IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
https://www.investopedia.com/how-much-cash-can-you-deposit-at-a-bank-8553483
This was part of the Bank Secrecy Act and the PATRIOT Act passed by Bush and later again by Obama.
They are from a very foreign country. They can lick my.
Well the above commentor assumed you live in the US.
I had already found that out
A lot of ATMs only get refilled once a week. That’s a lot of possible withdrawals.
A few years back there was a gang of criminals that used explosives to breach ATMs in the area I live. They had quite the spree, about one a week I recall.
Most of the places just stopped having ATMs. There’s less than halve remaining, I’d estimate.
Some ATMs support deposits. Also it’s possible the 40k is not from a physical breach but a skimmer stealing PINs.
I saw a video of people ripping ATMs out with trucks too
Rough math wise and ATM can easily hold $40k. That’s 8.6 inches of $20 bills, it might be a mostly full ATM, but a believable amount.
As for how easy it is to break into an ATM, it’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. They are designed to be serviceable by a single person, so the doors and locks while strong, aren’t going to hold up to the force of a vehicle or explosives from someone that knows what they are doing. The hard part is removing the cash box, which depending on the machine it can be easier to take the whole machine. Once you get the machine/box to a second location the security is irrelevant.
Serviced by three men (I’ve seen women doing the job too), one to sit in the armored vehicle holding a gun but otherwise bored; one to old a gun and watch the work but mostly looking bored; and one to open the machine and replace the cash. The first two are there to keep the person doing the work honest and be ready if someone attempts a robbery (have 40k in cash makes them a target). That is in a safe office building, I’m sure they have stricter policies in bad neighborhoods.
