Thieves steal up to $30m of cash in one of LA’s biggest heists

US

Thieves have stolen as much as $30m (£23.7m) in cash from a Los Angeles money storage facility in one of the biggest burglaries in the city’s history.

The culprits broke in through the roof on Easter Sunday night, sources told the LA Times, and the raid was not discovered until the vault was opened again the next day.

It is unclear how they avoided triggering the alarm.

The facility is in the Sylmar area of the San Fernando Valley and is used to store and handle cash from local businesses, said police commander Elaine Morales.

Very few people would have known about the large amounts of cash being stored there, the LA Times reported.

File pic: AP
Image:
File pic: AP

The FBI is said to be investigating alongside police.

The timing of the burglary draws comparisons with London’s infamous Hatton Garden heist, which also happened over the Easter weekend in 2015 – apparently to avoid detection as nearby businesses were closed.

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The LA raid comes about two years after 22 bags of jewels and valuables worth up to $100m (£79m) were stolen from a truck about 40 miles north of LA on Interstate 5.

The thieves struck when one of the armed drivers was sleeping and the other getting food at a petrol station. They have never been caught.

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