In what police have called one of the biggest cash heists in the history of Los Angeles, thieves in San Fernando Valley successfully robbed a money storage facility of up to US$30 million (over C$40.4 million) on Easter Sunday.
Authorities in the state have been left scratching their heads, wondering how exactly the burglars got away with the cash without detection, or even setting off any security alarms in the building.
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Commander Elaine Morales told the LA Times the thieves robbed an unnamed facility in the suburban neighbourhood of Sylmar. The secure building held cash from several businesses in the area.
To steal the money, the LA Times reported that the thieves developed an elaborate plan and likely broke into the building through the roof before gaining access to a safe where the money was stored.
The robbery went undetected by staff at the facility until a day after the break-in, in part because the vault showed no signs of entry from the outside, leading police to believe the team of burglars was highly experienced. The owners of the money storage facility, who have also not been named, contacted police on Monday after they opened the vault and discovered they’d been robbed.
Police said very few people would have known that huge sums of cash were being held in the vault. The LAPD and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) are investigating the burglary. As of this writing, the thieves have not been apprehended.
In a joint statement to CBS News, the FBI and LAPD said they have “no additional information related to the incident” at this time.
The state’s largest-ever cash heist before this one took place in 1997, when a group of thieves stole US$18.9 million (about C$25.5 million) from a now-gone Dunbar Armored facility. The thieves were caught years later.
Canada is not exempt from major theft like this, and a number of cases have made front-page headlines over the years.
In 2023, $23.8 million in gold and cash was stolen from facilities at Toronto’s Pearson airport. The brazen robbery saw staff at an Air Canada warehouse hand the thief over 400 kilograms of gold, in the form of 24 bars, and nearly US$2 million (nearly C$2.7 million) in currency. The burglar gained access to the gold and cash using a phony waybill, a document typically issued by a carrier with details about a shipment.
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