While many of us were busy hunting for eggs and taking pictures with the Easter bunny, thieves in Southern California were pulling off a $30 million heist.
The huge theft took place on Sunday night (31 March) at a money storage facility in the San Fernando Valley, where money from businesses across the region is handled and stored.
Using methods that have stumped police officers, the thieves were thought to have gained access to the building through the roof, sources familiar with the investigation told the Los Angeles Times.
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They could then access the vault, but it's unclear how the thieves avoided setting off the alarm in the facility, and from the outside the vault showed no signs of a break-in.
It's also unclear how thieves knew about the millions of dollars that were being held in the facility’s safe.
It wasn't until the following day that the operators of the business opened the safe and discovered the money had been stolen, prompting them to alert the authorities.
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Detectives from the LAPD’s Mission Division station arrived at the scene to gather evidence, and it was determined that the thieves must have been an experienced crew who knew how to gain entry to a secure facility unnoticed.
The AIR7 HD helicopter flew over the facility following the news of the break-in and spotted what appeared to be a hole on the side of the money storage facility which had been boarded up.
There was a pile of debris next to the hole, but it's unclear whether the scene is related to the heist.
Law enforcement sources told the LA Times the break-in was among the largest cash burglaries in city history.
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Before Sunday's heist, the largest theft of cash took place on 12 September, 1997, when $18.9 million was stolen from the former site of the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo Street.
Police have stated that they are not currently providing any information on the mysterious theft that occurred on Easter Sunday, though an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed that the agency is working with the Los Angeles Police Department on the case.
The heist comes nearly two years after as much as $100 million in jewels and valuables were stolen from a Grapevine truck stop in July 2022 as they were being transported from the International Gem and Jewelry Show in San Mateo.
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Thieves were able to stuff more than 20 large bags with the valuables while one driver slept and another was eating a meal.
The crime remains unsolved.
Topics: Crime, Los Angeles, Police, Money
Emily Brown