Theft from Iran’s Largest Bank in Hollywood Movie Style
Thieves stunned everyone by breaking into 250 safe deposit boxes at the prestigious branch of Bank Melli Iran on Revolution Street in Tehran.
The Young Journalists Club affiliated with IRIB reported that during the extended holidays marking the death anniversary of the Islamic Republic’s founder, a number of thieves penetrated the prestigious Bank Melli branch across from Tehran University and broke into approximately 250 safe deposit boxes at this branch, taking their contents with them.
IRIB News Agency also announced that the thieves entered the safe deposit box area through a neighboring building and, without leaving any trace behind, left the bank with the contents of 250 boxes that contained deposits of Bank Melli Iran customers. The public relations department of Bank Melli confirmed the news and announced that the bank was unaware of the contents inside the safe deposit boxes, therefore cannot comment on the volume or exact figures of this theft. Police say the thieves had complete familiarity with the bank’s environment, to the extent that they also took recording devices including cameras and their memory cards with them. For this reason, police investigations have been unable to obtain precise information and data about this theft, including the number of thieves and their method of penetrating the bank’s system. The security alert system of this prestigious branch was not connected to police, but it did send an alert to the branch manager, however, the manager, assuming a malfunction in the system and mistaken alert message, did not follow up on the matter.
The head of Tehran’s Criminal Investigation Police also stated that several bank employees showed negligence and carelessness in initial investigations into this incident and are being monitored with investigations continuing.
“A bank safe deposit box is an appropriate and secure place for storing valuable personal property such as gold, currency, documents, securities, and certificates.” This is text found on Iranian banks’ websites in the safe deposit box rental section. Banks also claim to have very high security to protect the contents of safe deposit boxes. Their websites also state: “Among the other advantages of bank safe deposit box rental is that neither the bank nor anyone else will be aware of the contents of your rented box, while a bank box has more security compared to personal safes, and there is a full-time armed guard to protect the vault and advanced fire prevention systems and connection with the nearest police station for automatic alert in case of danger are among the security measures that have been taken to protect the vaults and concentrated safe deposit boxes.”
Police say they are pursuing uncovering the secret of the Bank Melli safe deposit boxes theft, but virtual space users, referring to the scale of this robbery and recent political events, consider this incident to be more than just a theft.
Abbas Abdi, a journalist close to reformists, wrote in response to this theft on his Twitter account: “The theft from Bank Melli at the university is not the work of ordinary thieves. Unexpected possibilities should be considered for it. More than it being a theft aimed at gaining money and gold, it has targeted security. Look at it like an assassination and not a theft. If it were an ordinary theft, they would be arrested immediately.”
Source: Voice of America
