Berlin has its own kind of night-time routine: some people grab a kebab, others try to open a cash machine with explosives. According to Berlin police (Mitte, no. 0267), officers were called early yesterday at around 4 a.m. to an explosion on Beusselstraße. Unknown persons are believed to have tried to open a cash machine using explosives. Result: machine damaged, but not "opened" in the sense the perpetrators had imagined.
Soberly put, the situation is clear: there was an explosion, there was an attempt, there was damage. And, as always, there is the next level of state responsibility: further investigations on suspicion of aggravated theft by causing an explosion have been taken over by a specialist unit of the State Criminal Police Office (LKA).
One might ask: why cash machines, of all things?
One might ask: why cash machines, of all things? Because cash famously has a nostalgic romance about it: you can touch it. And because, in the logic of some offenders, blowing up a machine apparently sounds easier than earning money legally. Berlin supplies the matching backdrop: early hour, loud bang, then darkness and absence.
What remains are the usual constants: no suspects in the report, no information on any haul, no details on the explosive. Instead, the administrative closing line that always reads like a formal full stop: the LKA has taken over. As if the abbreviation alone could bring order to chaos.
What to watch next:
- Whether police issue witness appeals or further details (descriptions, getaway vehicle).
- Whether there is additional forensic work or video analysis in the area (with no guarantee of public information).
- Whether Berlin's "cash machine vs. explosives" series continues or actually ends this time.