Southwest Iceland Slot Machine Heist Nets 6 To 8 Million ISK

An uncommon—but not unheard of—type of heist went down in southwest Iceland recently.

Local Suðurnes reports that a restaurant in the area was broken into, and the thieves seemed to know exactly what they were after. 13 slot machines were badly damaged from being pried open and emptied.

These are digital slots, and as such can accept both coins and paper notes. In all, the estimated haul for the robbery is between six and eight million ISK, making it one of the most successful heists in Icelandic history—that is, if the pre-crash bank robbery by Icelandic financiers is not taken into account.

There have been slot machine break-ins, or attempted break-ins, in the past in Iceland. A cursory search has shown slot machine heists reported on in 2003, 2006, and as recently as last January.

One of the more striking aspects of this heist is the krónur amount, which even exceeded the last known bank robbery in Iceland. That heist only netted 700,000 ISK, and the perpetrators were caught within hours.

The slot machine robbers are still at large, and no leads have been disclosed at the time of this writing.