Criminals in Russia often take a different approach to the rest of the world. Crimes are never straight forward, they’re not always successful, but they’re always cheap, messy and surprising, like the carjacker that got his comeuppance the other day. A new crime wave is spreading across Russia and the Ukraine at the moment. Small time criminals have worked out how to blow up cash machines and make off with the money. They’re not using TNT or anything high brow like that though, they’re just using propane canisters. It’s causing a bit of a stir because, guess what, gas explosions are a little on the dangerous side.

This new modus operandi has only recently surfaced and it’s worrying Russian residents because, unlike plastic explosives, propane is widely available to purchase legally and really cheaply. So far more than 20 cash points have got blown sky-high in just the last few weeks. Apparently the noise of the gas going off is incredible and citizens living in the vicinity of ATMs are quite rightly packing their pants about it.

The criminals have already escaped with millions of rubles (thousands of dollars) and the cops are getting pretty hot under the collar about it. Plenty of parked cars have been damaged by the propane explosions but so far civilians have managed to avoid injury. It’s only a matter of time though I guess.

Here’s some pictures of the carnage, it’s nowhere near as funny as the Tesco cash point offering “free erections” though: