Name: Thieves take $30 million in one of the largest cash heists in Los Angeles history
Uploaded: 2024-03-14T02:50:16.000Z
Duration: 7 min 47 s
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Say we get into the cage and through the security doors there and down the elevator we can't move and pass the guards with the guns and into the vault we can't open.

Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot to mention that.

We're just supposed to walk out of there with $150 million in cash on us without getting stopped?

They managed to pull it off in the movie, of course.

I mean, it's rare we hear about such crazy heist in the real world.

Well, now isn't one of those times, and it involves big money, mondo money.

I'm talking $30 million in cash money stolen on Easter Sunday.

It happened in northern Los Angeles at a money storage facility.

Sources telling CNN the burglars broke through the roof, bypassed the alarms, entered the vault by cutting through the ceiling and then exited the building by breaking through a rear wall.

It's one of the largest cash heists in the city's history.

I know, I know. You've probably got 30 million questions. So do I.

So, for starters, you ever see what $30 million in cash looks like in person?

This is $30 million stacked in $100 bills.

Now, we heard the estimations of the stolen cash, but in $100 bills, that would be about 661 pounds.

If it were in $50 bills, more than 1300 pounds.

And in case the burglars really ran into a challenge, $1 bills would have been 66,000 pounds.

So about all those questions, who better to help than the person who first broke this story along with the former bank robber?

Well, joining me now, Richard Winton, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and Joe Lawyer, who robbed more than 30 banks in the late '80s and served prison time for doing so.

He's the co-host of the podcast "The Score Bank Robber Diaries," author of "The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell."

Gentlemen, thank you for both joining me this evening.

Everyone is talking about this story and trying to figure out how, why and of course, who.

Richard, what are your sources telling you about how this heist was even carried out?

It was carried out very quietly on a holiday, which is not unusual when it comes to big heists.

They choose the place and time when there's the least opposition.

And this was clearly designed to be stealthy.

They just had to evade all the security systems, make an access.

And yes, they had to remove out of cash, which certainly is like a small elephant.

I mean, Joe, you're the one with the experience here, to say the least.

I'm wondering for your perspective, when I describe what is entailed seemingly how much planning would go into something like this?

Well, the crime is dictated by the inside of the place.

So if the place says you have to be here to avoid these to, you know, to avoid these cameras, and then maybe you have to push this code here and wait for this to happen.

How you have to maneuver through there is your plan.

So I believe that everybody who was involved in robbery already understood that.

They understood what they had to do, where they had to be, what cameras to avoid.

So I don't think that's the challenging part -- planning the actual robbery.

It's all the other things that go into it is the disguises.

It's the weapons, it's the getaway stuff.

And I believe that there's been another robbery in 1997 where some guys robbed another money storage facility and they are very, very clever [with] the way they did it, the way they got away with it, the way they waited.

We are very brazen, impulsive, and we can do things that... like I rob 30 banks.

It was a very successful like short, brief bank robbery career.

But I was impulsive and I was dumb and I just pushed too far.

And I feel like that's what's going to happen here.

These people are going to get caught because even though they're very sophisticated here, they're going to fall. They're going to stumble.

And eventually, they'll get caught and we'll find exactly what kind of inside job it was.

Well, Richard, let me have you weigh in here, because everyone is wondering about the FBI investigation.

Well, what we know at this stage is the FBI is asking people in the immediate area for a video of this that personal security systems, like there's a mobile home park, there's a church, there's a number of other businesses.

They've been going around trying to collect every piece of video from that period of time to see if there's anything on it.

In addition, there's also reports of a grinding sound, which suggests that there was a time there's a time they're talking about when they think it occurred.

And they've been asking residents about that.

So we think that they're trying to pinpoint a time.

And that may mean they're also looking to see whether were cell phones used in the area.

They do a lot geofencing and other techniques to try and work out who's who was actually in an area who may watch this area in the past.

Let me ask you, Joe, someone to walk around with $30 million or maybe they're not walking around.

I mean, how do they avoid detection? Do they lay low or do they try to spend it at means cash?

So if they're shrewd, they're not going to do anything with it for a long time.

By that, I mean 6 months or a year because they want to-- they know conceivably they're going to be followed or they could be tracked.

Like your other guest said there's phones are going to be tracked.

There's cars that are going to be noticed from video surveillance.

They have to understand that's going to be so they don't want to have an Uber job or delivery job or a car repair.

I want to say something about the cars and and the phones, which is in prison,

when you're in prison, one of the things about being a prisoner, a criminal as you see and hear who gets arrested and you see and hear how they got arrested.

And so nowadays, I know that people are criminals, ex-friends of mine who have come out.

One thing we understand is phones get pinned.

And so if you want to be doing a heist, it can't be your phone.

Secondly, ever since Timothy McVeigh got caught because they tracked the car, his truck leaving the crime scene and they used surveillance footage from ATMs inside the building.

If you want to get away, you need to not use your own car.

Wow. I mean, I don't know if I ever use these tips, Joe Lawyer, but I'm glad to hear about this investigation.

Richard Winton, thank you for your reporting as well. Thank you both.