Thieves take $30 million in one of the largest cash heists in Los Angeles history

I say we go into the cage, go through the security doors and go down the elevator, we can't move past the guards with the weapons and into the vault. We can't open without the cameras seeing us. Oh yeah. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. Yes, we will say that we do all that. We're supposed to get out of there with $150

million

in

cash

without getting arrested. Yes, it sounds crazy, right? Of course, they managed to pull it off in the movie. I mean, it's rare that we hear about such high levels in the real world. Well, now is not one of those times and it involves a lot of money, mondo money.

I'm talking about $30

million

in

cash

stolen on Easter Sunday. It happened in north Los Angeles at a money storage facility. What's that? Cash from companies across the region? Well, there it stayed. Sources told CNN that the

thieves

broke through the roof preventing alarms from entering the vault by cutting through the roof and then exited the building by breaking through a back wall. It is one of the

largest

cash robberies in the city's

history

. I know I know. You probably have 30 million questions. Me too. So to start, have you ever seen in person what $30 million in cash looks like?

Me neither. But here you have a sample. That's $30 million stacked on $100 bills. Now, we hear nominations of stolen cash, but in $100 notes, that would be around £661. If they weren't $50 notes, more than 1,300 pounds, 20 odd notes, 30 £300 notes. And if the

thieves

were really challenged, the $1 notes would have been worth £66,000. So about all those questions. Who better to help than the first person who revealed this story, along with the former bank robber? Well, I'm joined now by Los Angeles Times reporter Richard Winton and Joe Lawyer, who robbed more than 30 banks in the late 1980s and served time in prison for doing so.

He is co-host of The Score Bank Robber Diaries podcast, author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me tonight. Everyone is talking about this story and trying to figure out how, why and, of course, who. Richard, what do your sources tell you about how this heist was carried out? It was carried out very quietly during a public holiday, which is not unusual when it comes to big

heists

. They choose the place and time when there is least opposition. And this was clearly designed to be stealthy. They didn't look like that movie.

There were going to be no guards. They just had to evade all the security systems that gave access. And yes, they had to walk away without cash, which is certainly a bit of an elephant. I mean, Joe, you're the one with experience here, to say the least. I wonder what your perspective is when I describe what is involved, apparently how much planning would be required for something like this? Well, the crime is dictated by the interior of the place. So if the place says you have to be here to avoid these two, you know, to avoid these cameras, then maybe you have to press this code here and wait for this to happen.

How you have to maneuver there is your plan. And I think it's an internal plan. So I think everyone who was involved in Robinet 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. The rest are the costumes. They are the weapons, they are the things to escape. And I think there was another robbery in 1997 where some guys robbed another money storage facility and they were very, very smart in the way they did it, in the way they got away with it, in the way they They waited.

But they were also stupid. And that's what happens with bank robbers. We are very brash, impulsive and we can do things like rob 30 banks. It was a short and brief career in bank robbery, very successful. But that's how it was, I was impulsive and stupid and I just pushed too hard. And I feel like that's what's going to happen here. These people are going to be trapped because, although they are very sophisticated here, someone is going to fall. They are going to trip. And eventually they will catch them and we will find them. Exactly what kind of inside job it was.

Well, Richard, let me chime in, because everyone is wondering about the FBI investigation. What do you know? Well, what we know right now is that the FBI is asking people in the immediate area for video of these personal security systems, such as if there is a mobile home park, a church and several other businesses. They've been trying to collect every bit of video from that time period to see if there's anything in it. Additionally, there are also reports of a screeching sound, suggesting that there was a moment they are talking about where they believe it occurred.

And they've been asking residents about that. So we think they are trying to point out a moment. And that may mean they're also looking to see where the weather was. Cell phones used in the area. They do a lot of geofencing and other techniques to try to determine who was actually in an area and who may have surveilled it in the past. Let me ask you, Joe, someone to walk with. 30 million dollars or maybe not around. I mean, how do they avoid detection? Are they keeping it low key or trying to spend it in cash? Whats Next?

Well. So if they are clever, they won't do anything with it for a long time. By this I mean 66 months a year because they want to know that they will possibly be followed or could be tracked as if they were there. Your other guest said they're going to track phones. There are cars that will be noticed by video surveillance. Therefore, they may be followed. They have to understand that this will be the case and they will not want to have a job at Uber, or a delivery job, or an auto repair shop. They are going to keep that job.

They're not going to move at all. And I think I want to say something about cars and phones, that it's in prison when you're in prison. One of the things about being a prisoner, a criminal, is seeing and hearing who is arrested and seeing and hearing how they were arrested. And nowadays, I know that people are criminals, former friends of mine who have come out of the closet. One thing we understand is that phones are pinged. So if you want to commit a robbery, it can't be your phone. Secondly, since they caught Timothy McVeigh because they tracked the car to his truck leaving the crime scene and used footage, surveillance footage of the ATMs inside the building.

Who knows if you want to escape. It is necessary that you do not use your own car. Wow. I mean, I don't know if I ever use this advice, prison attorney, but I'm glad to hear about this research. Richard Winton, thank you also for your report. Thanks to both of you.