Both federal and local authorities are being tight-lipped about the $30 million Easter Sunday heist from a cash storage facility in the San Fernando Valley, prompting continued speculation about whether the thieves may actually get away with the record-breaking haul.
The March 31 heist occurred at a GardaWorld facility on Roxford Street in Sylmar that handles cash from businesses across Southern California.
While it’s unclear how thieves knew about the massive amount of money held in the facility’s safe, the break-in was considered complex, suggesting a highly experienced burglary crew.
Thieves reportedly entered the building through the roof to gain access to the vault. Outside the vault itself, there were no obvious signs of the break-in, and officials at the facility weren’t even aware of the heist until the safe was opened Monday.
Scott Andrew Selby, co-author of “Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History,” told KTLA that the sheer logistics of the heist, which likely would’ve taken at least a few months to plan, are impressive.
“If it was $30 million in $100 bills, that would be around 660 pounds, which is a lot of weight to move out of the building,” he said. “If the bills were smaller, then it would be even heavier. It’s not something that would fit on the passenger seat of your vehicle.”
KTLA obtained footage of a large hole cut into the side of the building, which was quickly covered with plywood and later repaired, but it’s unclear how and if thieves used it during the burglary.
According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, a resident at a nearby mobile home park claimed to have heard mechanical sounds around the time of the burglary. Not far away, the owner of the Kwik Market & Deli said the store’s wifi signal wasn’t working for much of that Easter Sunday.
The latter has led to speculation that perhaps the crew used a wifi jammer, a tool that police warn has become common in residential burglaries, during the break-in.
In the latest reporting, The Times writes that at least one alarm, which wasn’t connected to local law enforcement, was triggered.
“If, as the Time’s mentions, an alarm went off that was ignored by a third-party company, the question is why,” Selby told KTLA. “A common ploy would be to trigger the alarm ahead of time to see what kind of response it got or to make it seem as if the alarm was not working properly so that it would eventually be ignored.”
Robert Clark, a retired Special-Agent-in-Charge at the FBI’s L.A. Field Office, said the heist could be an inside job and believes there’s a good chance the burglary crew will get busted.
“I think the likelihood is very high because you don’t move that kind of money very quickly,” he said. “It’s not like you’re grabbing a couple of checks and running out the door. To be able to liquidate [it] would be very difficult.”
Selby echoed that sentiment, saying that while this crew appears to be smart and disciplined, they would need extensive contacts in the criminal underworld to launder that amount cash and that the aftermath of a heist on this scale is almost as dangerous as the burglary itself.
“The U.S. has gotten much better about finding cash. Smuggling money out of the country is very hard,” he said. “With today’s forensics, it could be a small piece of evidence that unravels the entire case. If there’s not a break in the case soon, it could be on the backend, in a year or two, when these guys do something with the money that gets them caught.”
So far GardaWorld, a Canadian-based company that employs 132,000 people and offers a variety of security services, including “secured transportation” and “cash vault processing,” has yet to respond to KTLA’s request for comment.