September 13th, 1997. At this time of night
downtown Los Angeles is quiet, a far cry from the bustling city center it is during the day.
It’s a typical night shift at the Dunbar Armored facility. Little do the guards know that they
are soon to become victims in one of the largest and most audacious robberies in US history.
Thirty year old Alan Pace III is the regional safety inspector for Dunbar Armored, Inc. He
seems diligent in his duties and his co-workers like him. He’s known for playing pranks. What no
one knows is that Allan is a criminal mastermind who has big plans. Number one on his list is
to rob the downtown LA Dunbar Armored facility, a depot where armored trucks drop off and pick up
cash amassed from businesses all over the city. Allan turns to his trusted childhood friends
Eugene Hill, Erik Boyd, Freddie McCrary Jr., Terry Brown Sr and Thomas Johnson for help.
Allan studies the security measures of the facility. He learns the schedules of everyone
on the night shift. He even takes pictures of the interior rooms and hallways of the depot.
Other employees assume that the picture taking must be part of Allan’s job since he
oversees worker safety for the company. In fact, part of his job includes making sure
fire extinguishers are up to date and that hallways aren’t blocked. As part of his scheme,
Allan also checks the security cameras for blind spots and inspects the rotating cameras to see
how long they stay on a specific field of view. For several months Allan and his five
friends meet regularly and plan the robbery. Due to his extensive research, Allan
is able to provide them with maps, images and detailed information.They even
go on reconnaissance field trips, driving past the building and getting very familiar with
the area. They vow that if any one of them gets caught, they won’t snitch on the others.
On Thursday Sept 12th Allan is notified that he’s going to be fired from Dunbar
Amored for tampering with company property. As part of a prank he had removed the
headlight from one of the armored trucks. It was now or never. The next day Allan would
have to turn in his keys and lose access to the facility. Furthermore, the wee hours of
Friday morning are the perfect time to strike. From experience, Allan knows the vault will be
packed with money waiting to be distributed across the city in anticipation of weekend shopping.
On Thursday night the crew of robbers hangs out at a party in Long Beach for a couple of hours
to establish alibis. They then slip away and change into black clothes and masks. They also
don radio headsets for talking to each other and check their guns before driving about
25 miles (40 km) to downtown Los Angeles. At this time of night, there’s little traffic
and the journey takes less than half an hour. It’s several minutes after midnight when the
thieves arrive at the downtown Dunbar facility. They’re able to drive their rented U-Haul
truck into the parking lot without issue, during planning Allan had learned that the
guard watching the camera for the parking lot had a new truck and kept the camera
trained on his truck so he could view it. To get inside, Allan simply unlocks a side
door and the robbers go right on in. Their first task is to evade detection on the various
security cameras lining the hallways. Due to Allan’s meticulous planning, they hug the walls
and move during timed intervals to make their way past rotating cameras without being seen.
The bandits head for the cafeteria where they quickly take the hospitality staff hostage.
At 12:30 am most of the guards go on lunch break. As each guard arrives at the cafeteria, the
robbers ambush and take them hostage one by one, preventing them from sounding the
alarm or alerting other guards. All the captured guards are laid face down and
their arms and ankles are bound with duct tape. The robbers also take the key for the vault
prep room from one of the hostage guards. This room has cameras that can’t be avoided,
so the robbers just rush the two armed guards inside and take them hostage too.
Now the robbers need to get into the vault, which has 18 inch (46 cm) steel doors.
However, due to the volume of money being moved through the facility on a Friday night,
the vault has been left open for ease of use. The robbers go into the vault and using bolt
cutters snap the ordinary padlocks on the metal cages storing the bags of cash. Money
in the vault is sorted by delivery routes and Allan has memorized which routes use large
denomination bills. He has his crew avoid bags of new cash with sequential serial numbers.
They mainly grab sacks filled with stacks of $20 bills that had been destined for automated
teller machines around the city. The robbers quickly load the bags of cash onto metal carts
which they wheel to the loading dock. They back their truck up to the dock and load up. In about
30 minutes, they move $18.9 million in cash. Allan has two final tasks before they split.
He steals the security tapes from the recording system in the security control room and then races
to a locked closet elsewhere in the facility to steal the secret backup security tapes out of
recording equipment which is in a locked cabinet. The robbers also smash cameras on the way
out. Without a single gunshot being fired, Allan Pace and his crew have pulled off
the largest cash heist in American history. The robbers go to an apartment that belongs
to one of them and change back into their party clothes. They return to the house
party in Long Beach and play it cool. At this point most thieves would be impatient
and dumb; they’d flash their money around and go on spending sprees. However, these robbers
are smarter than most. Allan gives each member of the crew $100,000 to be used for quiet,
discreet spending. Per the agreed upon plan, the rest of the cash will have to wait until the
heat’s off. The robbers pack the remaining $18.2 million in garbage bags and move them into
a self storage facility for safe keeping. A task force involving local police, FBI and
other federal authorities quickly forms to investigate the heist. The Dunbar company
and their insurer, Lloyd’s of London, offer a $125,000 reward for information
leading to the robbers’ arrest and conviction. However, authorities are soon stumped.
There are no fingerprints. There are no names--when talking during the robbery, the
thieves had called each other by number. There is no video evidence of the crime either.
The one thing investigators are certain of is that it’s an inside job. Someone with intimate
knowledge of the operations of the Dunbar Armored facility has to be involved--especially
since the robbers knew that the backup security tapes existed and stole those too.
Authorities interview employees of the facility, hoping that someone knows something. One of
the questions asked during these meetings is ‘which employee do you think could have
committed this crime?’ Interestingly, the name of Allan Pace keeps coming up.
The only major clue the authorities have is a small plastic tail light lens that was found
at Dunbar's loading dock, it doesn’t belong to any company vehicle. The FBI forensics lab in
Washington analyzes it and determines that it’s from a 14-foot (4.27 meter) U-Haul truck. But
this promising lead is a flop. There are many U-Haul trucks on rent in greater LA at the time of
the robbery. The only name they have is Allan’s. They check to see if he rented a truck during
the time of the robbery, of course he hasn’t. Investigators conduct surveillance on Allan. They
even delve into his financial records. However they discover nothing. Allan is living quietly
at his mom’s home. He hasn’t made any flashy purchases. He stays away from the self storage
center where the money is hidden. As it turns out, Allan doesn’t even have a bank account.
The trail goes cold. Over 6 months pass. Allan cautiously
begins to parcel out money to his crew. He plans to invest his share in rental
properties, retire and just live off his investments. The robbers slowly begin purchasing
cars and property in cash. They use straw buyers to acquire at least 10 homes during public
auctions of foreclosed properties. They allow family to live in these homes or rent them out.
The robbers realize that they accidentally stole several bags of new money with sequential serial
numbers which could link them to the crime. Allan tells them that this money needs to be destroyed.
Some of the robbers go to one of their homes that has a fireplace and try to get rid of it by
burning it. But, US money is manufactured to be somewhat anti flammable and the stacks of money
burn slowly. The task quickly became tedious. The robbers decide to go to Las Vegas
instead and play the slot machines to get rid of the new money. Unfortunately,
crisp, new money jams in the slot machines. So the robbers end up putting the money
through a washing machine to make them usable. More time passes. Allan sets up a company ‘Extreme
Entertainment’ which rents party supplies, but it’s mainly a front to launder the stolen
money. He puts his accomplices on the payroll and pays himself and them very high salaries.
About two years after the robbery, one of the robbers, Eugene Hill, makes a fatal mistake.
He hires a real estate broker to purchase a property and gives the man a stack of cash that
is still wrapped in the original cash straps. The broker is suspicious and alerts police.
Authorities investigate and realize that based on the dates and handwriting on the straps,
the cash is part of the stash stolen from the Dunbar facility. The authorities dig into
Eugene’s financial records and also subpoena thousands of U-haul records. They learned that
Eugene rented a 14 foot U-haul a day before the robbery and had returned it a day later.
When police arrest Eugene, they find in his possession more cash in the original money
wrappers. Eugene quickly confesses, and rolls on his accomplices in return for a lesser sentence.
Allan and the five other robbers are arrested and put on trial in the spring of 2001. To the
end, Allan denied taking part in the robbery, he claimed that he was being
set up by his former friends as revenge for cheating with a friend's wife.
Four of the robbers in Allans’s crew plead guilty and are sentenced to federal prison
for terms ranging from 7 1/2 to 10 years. The fifth robber receives 17 ½ years. Allan,
the criminal mastermind is sentenced to 24 years. Also, the robbers are ordered
to pay $18.9 million in restitution. Authorities have accounted for about $7
million taken in the heist. Most of that was spent on homes, cars, and other items. It’s
estimated that several hundred thousand dollars were burned or gambled away in Las Vegas.
Many authorities say that there is as much as $10m is still hidden somewhere. As
of fall 2020, this money has not been found. Allan Pace will soon complete his prison
sentence. Once he gets out, could he secretly retrieve the missing stolen cash, change his
identity and retire on a beach somewhere? Now go watch this on the
most insane jewel heist ever: Or this. A secret cyber hacker group
has stolen millions of dollars. Why haven’t authorities arrested them?
