Expert explains why audacious $30 million Easter Sunday bank heist could go unsolved
Topics: News, US News, Los Angeles, Crime, Money
Bec Oakes
Featured Image Credit: ABC7
Topics: News, US News, Los Angeles, Crime, Money
According to experts, a $30 million cash heist that took place on Easter Sunday could go unsolved.
On Easter Sunday (March 31), one of the biggest heists in US history took place at a money storage facility in Los Angeles.
The thieves are thought to have gained access to the building — which stores money from businesses across the region — through the roof.
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They then accessed the safe, stealing a whopping $30 million in cold hard cash.
It is unclear how the thieves avoided setting off the alarm in the facility, and the outside the vault showed no signs of a break-in.
It wasn't until the following day that the operators of the business opened the safe and discovered the money was missing.
An expert has since said that the heist was pulled off so cleanly that it could go unsolved.
Scott Selby, a Harvard-educated lawyer who co-authored Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History, told the NY Post: "This is a group that would have to have a lot of prior experience.
"We know they’re good because they got in and out without anybody noticing. And so far, there’s nothing obvious that leads the LAPD and FBI to know who they are.
"It’s very possible that this case could go unsolved, given that level of skill involved with this, the fact that already there’s been no compelling leads."
He went on to explain how the nature of what the criminals stole will also make it hard to solve.
"I mean, you can’t work backwards," he said. "If someone sees a highly unusual diamond, they remember, 'Hey, I know that stone.' But nobody’s gonna be like, 'Oh, yeah, I remember that used $100 bill.'"
And, in regards to speculation that the heist may have been an inside job, Selby says it's entirely possible.
"The big question I would have if I were the LAPD or the FBI is what kind of information with the thieves have needed to do this job," he said.
"Thirty million — is that the usual amount that they have there? Was there something special about this Easter Sunday, or is it just a holiday weekend that they decided to hit the place? Was there a particular weakness in that part of the roof?"
The theft reminded Selby of the United California Bank robbery of 1972, in which $9 million was looted from a safe deposit vault by professional burglars.
Similar to the Easter Sunday heist, the criminals accessed the building through the roof and took off with the cash without setting off any alarms.