Security firm GardaWorld is under fire after thieves seamlessly broke into a secure vault on Easter Sunday, robbing as much as $30 million from a Sylmar warehouse.
At this time, authorities have not named any suspects. However, an FBI press relations representative told Annenberg Media “the FBI and LAPD are conducting a joint investigation to determine the person or group responsible for a [multi-million dollar] theft that occurred at a building in the city of Sylmar on Sunday, March 31st.”
LAPD Commander Elaine Morales told the Los Angeles Times that the burglars successfully breached the building and vault Sunday night. The robbery went unnoticed until Monday morning when facility operators opened the safe.
The robbery seemed so flawless that USC professor Suzanne Lynch says insiders at GardaWorld could be involved. Lynch, who worked in corporate crime investigations for 30 years, says companies like GardaWorld will look to their employees for evidence of any insider activity.
“It’s a sophisticated team effort with potential insiders, as well as a very sophisticated outside crew that would do things like breaking in through the roof,” Lynch said. “I think there was quite an interesting organization that was put together to do this.”
GardaWorld has a track record of misplacing large sums of money. The Tampa Bay Times conducted an investigation in 2020 that uncovered millions of dollars had gone missing from company vaults. Court records show employees ignoring security protocol and failing to investigate reports of missing cash.
Brian Newell, a past manager of GardaWorld’s armored truck branches, told The Tampa Bay Times that his supervisor once instructed him to transport all coins stored at his Connecticut branch to a branch in Massachusetts. The branch was missing money ahead of an impending audit from Bank of America. He later discovered he was one of several branch managers asked to send all of their holdings to cover up the missing cash.
A document obtained by The Tampa Bay Times stated that GardaWorld executives found discrepancies in 2014 and estimated approximately $9 million missing throughout the company. Employees reported that money continued to go missing after the executives’ internal investigation, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Updates from the San Fernando facility have remained stagnant since the heist.
According to an unnamed Los Angeles Times source, one side wall of the cash-holding building, in addition to the roof, showed evidence of an attempted breach. At least one alarm is confirmed to have been triggered during the heist, but it didn’t trigger a call to law enforcement.
“There could be multiple people who understand the physical security or the layout of the building. Most cash vaults are extremely secure—the physical building and the alarm networks,” Lynch said. “There was a small alarm that went off and that’s it.”
Since customers do not usually pay with hundred dollar bills, the burglars likely had to load millions of $5, $10 and $20 bills into getaway vehicles to make up the $30 million stolen. This means getaway vehicles would have to fit and transport several tons of coins and paper bills.
“30 million is a lot of money to get taken like that,” said Ezra Avery, a sophomore studying economics and mathematics. “They must have known what they were doing and had it super planned out because there was not a lot of evidence left behind.”
Avery remains optimistic that the thieves will escape with their fortune. Other students hope to see them behind bars.
“I think they can make a really cool Netflix series about this in 50 years,” said Roman Marchetti, a sophomore studying journalism. “I hope they catch them so they can do that.”
Anyone with information about this theft should contact the FBI at 1 800 CALL-FBI (225-5324) or online, at tips.fbi.gov.