Why The $30 Million Cash Heist Could Only Happen In LA

LOS ANGELES, CA — A burglary crew that successfully carried out one of the largest cash heists in Los Angeles history on Easter continues to evade law enforcement as investigators search to recover $30 million.

And tracking down the loot might prove to be the real challenge, Scott Selby, co-author of “Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History” told Patch. Everything about the expertly executed heist uniquely ties into the nature of LA with its sprawling freeways and constant flow of cash.

In many ways, it was the perfect crime. The thieves entered the Gardaworld building in Sylmar without alerting security and left with $30 million in cash that is nearly untraceable. There are very few places in the country where that amount of unmarked, nonsequential currency is stored.

The Gardaworld building stores cash from businesses across the region, and the densely packed nature of Los Angeles provides another unique opportunity, Selby said. With countless stores and shops dotting the streets, the facility would house impossibly large amounts of cash from the different businesses that store money there

"Think about all the business that's being done in order to have $30 million worth of cash in a depot," Selby said.

Police said very few people knew how much money was kept in the safe and described the crime as elaborate. Authorities suggested an experienced crew who knew how to gain entry to a secure facility unnoticed carried out the theft.

These thieves had plenty of time to make their getaway as no alarms notified police, and their presence at the money storage facility wasn't discovered until the next morning. Though one alarm did sound, it didn't notify any law enforcement.

Still, it wouldn't have been hard for the thieves to get away by blending into the bustling city even though they carried more than 600 pounds in cash.

At any one location within LA, an entrance to one of the most developed freeway systems in the world is bound to be nearby, giving thieves a much easier and quicker escape route, Selby said.

Gardaworld in Sylmar is just a three-minute drive from a Golden State (5) Freeway entrance.

"So within minutes, by the time you're on one of those freeways, you're gone," Selby told Patch. "Los Angeles used to be the bank robbery capital of the world, it used to be that somebody would go to a bank, hold them up with guns, and then they can be gone."

With the theft committed, the question now is what will the burglary crew do with $30 million in cash? Any large deposits or purchases will peak the interest of law enforcement, Selby said, so the challenge is how to spend the money without attracting the attention of the FBI.

Odds are that the criminals will turn to money laundering if they're keeping the money inside the country, said Selby.

"If you're making splashy purchases, people might notice, and there are all kinds of limitations in the U.S. and what you could do with cash," Selby said. " But there are ways to launder the money if you invest in a cash-heavy business."