In one of the biggest cash heists in Los Angeles history, thieves made off with up to $30 million during an Easter Sunday heist at a storage facility money from the San Fernando Valley, a Los Angeles police official revealed Wednesday.
The burglary occurred Sunday evening at an unnamed establishment in Sylmar where cash from area businesses is handled and stored, according to Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Elaine Morales.
The burglars managed to break into the building as well as the safe where the money was stored, Morales said. Police sources said the burglary was one of the largest heists in the city’s history in terms of cash, and the total also exceeded all armored vehicle burglaries in the city.
Mystery surrounds the burglary.
Sources close to the investigation said a team of burglars forced open the roof of the establishment to gain access to the safe. But it’s unclear how they avoided the alarm system.
Additionally, looking at the safe from the outside, it showed no signs of break-in. The operators of the business, whom police have not identified, only discovered the massive theft when they opened the safe on Monday.
Authorities were alerted and detectives from the LAPD’s Mission Division station responded to the crime scene to collect evidence.
What further adds to the intrigue is that very few people would have known about the huge sums of cash that were kept in this safe, according to police sources.
The break-in was described as complex and suggested a team of experienced burglars who knew how to enter a secure facility unnoticed.
The largest cash heist in Los Angeles occurred on September 12, 1997, with the theft of $18.9 million from the former site of the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo Street. The perpetrators of the theft were finally arrested.
Sunday’s incident also comes nearly two years after a multimillion-dollar jewelry theft from a Brink’s big truck at a Grapevine truck stop.
Nearly $100 million in jewelry and valuables were removed from the truck.
In this case, thieves fled with the goods at 3 a.m. on July 11, 2022, filling more than 20 large bags with jewelry, gemstones and other items that the Brink’s tractor-trailer was transporting from the Show San International Gems and Jewelry. Mateo in the Los Angeles area.
The heist occurred during a 27-minute window in which one driver was sleeping in the vehicle’s sleeper and another was eating a meal at the Flying J, a sprawling truck stop just off Interstate 5’s winding Grapevine in Lebec, California.
This crime remains unsolved.
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