In 2000, there were 221 armed robberies against banking institutions in generally peaceful Denmark. That’s about two robberies every three days. But in recent years, less and less cash can be found in most offices, so the number of robberies has steadily decreased. As of 2017, there were fewer than ten per year. Last year there wasn’t even one.
“That is simply fantastic. Because such a robbery weighs heavily on the personnel involved,” said Steen Lund Olsen, vice-chairman of the sector organization Finansforbundet. Only two Danske Bank branches, in Copenhagen and Aarhus, still have banknotes in stock.
In the past, one of the most notorious bank robberies in Scandinavia happened, more specifically in Sweden. In August 1973, four bank clerks in central Stockholm were held hostage for several days after a botched robbery. But when they were freed, none of the victims wanted to testify against the thief, Jan-Erik Olsson. Immediately the “stockholm syndrome”, in which one has sympathy for one’s hostage-taker, was born.