Thieves in Los Angeles pulled off one of the largest cash heists in city history over the weekend, stealing as much as $30m from a money storage facility on Easter Sunday, authorities said on Wednesday.
The break-in unfolded at an unnamed facility in the Sylmar area of the San Fernando Valley that handles and stores cash from businesses across the region. Burglars were able to enter without immediate detection and breached a safe, said Elaine Morales, a Los Angeles police department commander, to the Los Angeles Times.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles police department are investigating the incident.
Police have not yet identified the operators of the business, but said they did not discover the theft until they opened the vault on Monday. Unnamed officials told ABC7 that thieves entered the facility through the roof and did not set off any alarms, and then somehow entered the area where money is stored.
Few people knew of the large amount of money held in the safe, unnamed law enforcement officials told the LA Times, describing the burglary as elaborate.
The Times reported the break-in was among the largest cash burglaries in Los Angeles history, and that the total also surpassed any armored-car heist in the city.
The theft comes nearly two years after as much as $100m in jewels and other valuables were stolen from a Brink’s big rig at a southern California truck stop. The thieves in that incident have not yet been caught.
