The FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department are probing the city’s largest cash robbery in history, when robbers stole up to $30 million on Easter Sunday.
The Los Angeles Times initially reported the event, which occurred at the Gardaworld facility in Sylmar.
Gardaworld, a Canadian private security agency, kept cash from businesses throughout the region at its Sylmar facility.
Burglars reportedly broke through the roof to gain access to the vault where the money was housed.
Footage of the facility also revealed what seemed to be a boarded-up hole on the side of the building, with a mound of rubble next to it.
It’s unknown how they accessed the vault without setting off alarms, but detectives concluded that the crime was carried out by a smart crew.
The operation was so quiet that the building’s owners were unaware of the break-in until Monday.
Very few people would have known how much money was kept in the unassuming building. Investigators are looking into whether the group had inside information of the facilities ahead to the crime.
According to Scott Selby, author of Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History, investigators will be “looking around the globe for crimes with a similar M.O.”
“As technology progresses and the world gets small, there are a lot of ways you can mess up and get caught,” he said. “With touch DNA, the slightest mistake can expose the identity of a member of the crew, leading authorities to eventually identify their associates.”
The previous largest cash heist in Los Angeles history occurred in September 1997, when robbers stole $18.9 million from the former Dunbar Armored Facility. The suspects were eventually apprehended.
Sunday’s robbery came nearly two years after thieves stole up to $100 million in jewelry and other valuables from a Brink’s big rig at a Southern California truck stop.