The $18.8 Million Armored Car Heist: Phil Johnson's Bold Gamble

[Music] philip johnson had a dead-end job and a five-year plan to retire rich one day he hit the road with 20 million stolen dollars and vanished [Applause] in march of 1997 33 year old philip johnson worked as a courier guard for loomis fargo armored cars in jacksonville florida at every stop on their route johnson left the safety of the steel-plated truck he checked for any suspicious activity then johnson entered the stores where merchants would fill bags with cash checks and coins the tens and thousands of dollars johnson collected made him a tempting target to any gunman the guard remained completely vulnerable until he could make it back to the armored car meanwhile the driver stayed in the truck cab behind the bullet-proof glass with his doors locked if anyone attacked under no circumstances could the driver let johnson back inside the truck he would be stuck outside on his own if clear the driver would open the door it was hazardous work without hazard pay seven dollars an hour without health insurance dental plan pension for overtime but the dangerous job did have a benefit that lumis fargo never planned on giving by the evening of march 29 1997 the day before easter a plan five years in the making was about to be hatched phil johnson was motivated to pull the crime off by an extreme hatred for his employer loomis fargo he had he felt that he was underpaid felt that other workers were underpaid that the working conditions were not what they should have been at loomis fargo and he was going to seek to make a change as their shift neared its end johnson's truck returned to the loomis fargo warehouse fully loaded with cash and checks the driver began the routine check-in a security guard inside the fenced complex identified the courier guard and his truck the day's low was particularly heavy it was the easter holiday weekend and consumers crowded the stores during their shift johnson and his driver had collected millions from the busy retailers even more cash waited in the company's vault each shift the guards faced the temptation of handling hundreds of times more money than they would ever earn in a lifetime my daughter's uh terry james brown and dan smith worked inside the warehouse they have worked together with johnson too but a bond that never developed between the three [Music] he was an outsider that kept to himself as rear by 6 30 that evening the driver [Music] however company regulations required johnson to stay on as courierguard he had to wait while the day's load was booked in there you go guys to help store the money another card these were the last moments that he would follow company procedure near seven o'clock when all the others had left johnson broke his routine of ten years he retrieved a bag from his car and sprang into action all right that'd be good [Music] while the vault guards were busy johnson grabbed smith's gun turn your back hands it back against no what are you doing shut up come on out here hands up what the hell shut up hands on the back of your head johnson told his co-workers it wasn't a joke then he ordered them to put shackles and handcuffs on and to lie down next to each other speed it up take the shackle and file the floor lie on your belt lie on your belt he took one of the company's unmarked vans and backed it into the vault area you guys comfortable shackled on the floor smith and brown could do nothing but fear for their fate the vault offered johnson cash in all denominations [Music] he left the coins and small bills of ones and fives don't move boys he just took tens or higher in unmarked non-sequential builds it was every crook's dream with a half a ton of cash the van took two hours to fill but johnson was in no hurry he knew the next shift wasn't due to the morning [Music] at gunpoint he moved the two bound guns into the back of the van stay covered up then he began cleaning up the crime scene he moved the cars belonged to smith brown and himself out of the employee parking lot so no one would suspect there was still anything else johnson then grabbed what the police would look for first his personnel file he also took the videotapes from the surveillance cameras last he set the vault timer so that the door would not open until the next afternoon easter sunday everything had gone according to his well-thought-out plan then johnson got careless what are you looking at get your head down with smith and brown as hostages he drove the van the short distance to his home hold up all right go walk forward what are you doing man just hold on just all right you see the closet right there just right here put your hands on that pipe grab the pipe all right what are you doing this for he handcuffed brown to a closet pipe he spoke about how unhappy he was in his job johnson i'm not gonna hurt you you'll be all right just can't leave me like this [Music] around midnight johnson returned to the van he threw a blanket over the shackled smith and threatened to kill him if he put up any struggle then as they drove north johnson asked smith why they hadn't been friends he wanted to know why smith hadn't ever asked him to go out for some pizza or for a beer there wasn't much smith could say he was a very quiet withdrawn individual he had been outspoken at times about his displeasure with loomis fargo but yet he didn't really stay what he wanted to do or where else he would go i think he was just building up some frustration inside at that time over those years they drove all night stopping only for gas sometime in the early morning they stopped so johnson could unload the money sitting in the van covered by a blanket smell could discern little about their journey except vague sounds like the clank of a metal door being rolled up while johnson unloaded the money smith remained helpless in the van he didn't know where they were nor did he know what johnson intended to do with him a little more than an hour later johnson drove the van to some wooded acres in the blue ridge mountains near asheville north carolina he forced the captive guard to handcuff himself to a tree and then lie down johnson then began to rant about his life ten years i worked for that company think about that it didn't pay me my overtime johnson left provisions and warm clothes before he drove off he promised that in two days he would call the authorities and inform them of smith's location don't worry the next morning employees arrived at loomis fargo only to find that they were locked out of the warehouse they called their supervisor he arrived with the master set of keys however neither keys nor combination allowed them access to the vault one glance at the monitor of the security camera inside the vault told them why yes this supervisor for loomis fargo we have a problem they had been robbed [Music] jacksonville police responded immediately to the call but they had to wait hours for the technicians to open the vault a quick tabulation of the missing money put the theft that over 10 million the fbi immediately stepped in because of the amount involved and because much of it was federally insured money the federal agents first inquired about missing loomis personnel all but smith brown and johnson were accounted for and johnson's file was gone you're missing johnson at the same time in north carolina smith had freed himself he used a swiss army knife to pick the lock on his handcuffs then he walked to a nearby road where he was picked up by a forest ranger we were notified here in jacksonville that dan smith had in fact freed himself on sunday and many of the pieces of the puzzle began to come together smith led the authorities to johnson's house there they found brown just where johnson had left him 18 hours earlier with the two loomis guards safe the fbi began the manhunt for johnson a description of johnson and the missing van was sent out across the southeast the first lead came from an army sergeant in asheville north carolina who spotted an abandoned white van he reported the stolen vehicle with the broken driver's side window and keys in the ignition within minutes 65 police officers and fbi agents descended into the area but they were too late their suspect had bought a one-way ticket to the town he was safely on his way to freedom seven dollars an hour that's what philip johnson made driving a wells fargo truck he hauled millions every day but you can't be much of a player on 56 bucks a day seven dollars musician as well immortalized the caper in song for wokv this is mike miller on news talk 690 wokv so the story is this a security guard named phil johnson who works for loomis fargo instead of going home after his shift leaves with nearly 20 million dollars the improbable heist immediately sees the imagination of local broadcasters there were a lot of people in the audience who were really rooting for philip johnson on a lot of different levels a lot of us could identify with them i mean how many people out there have worked in a job which they didn't think was ever going to take them any higher how many people working a job that they knew was never going to be any more lucrative how many times do you work for somebody and realize that you know more than your boss knows and you can't understand why they don't go to you for advice i think those were all the feelings that philip johnson had stored up in him so when he did pull this off he thumbed his nose at everybody he said i'm better than seven dollars an hour i'm smarter than you think i am and guess what with all the smarts that all of our bosses have i could do something that you said was fail safe philip noel johnson vanished along with almost 20 million dollars more money than any individual in u s history we had no idea where phil johnson had gone there was indications that he might be up in canada there were indications he could be in mexico or that he could be down in costa rica or south america the only hope authorities had of finding johnson lay in the jumble of evidence he had left in his home ironically it was the chaos that was left behind at his house that created the confusion for law enforcement there was so much stuff there investigators found johnson's home to be one of a tormented but brilliant loner they also discovered a paper trail that took them back five years earlier mucho as far back as 1992 johnson began preparing for his crime several former roommates told authorities johnson was difficult to live with stop leaving your crap around in my room investigators discovered that johnson stole his roommate's identities he borrowed their driver's licenses and birth certificates to create a long list of aliases [Music] the fbi began to canvas places where johnson could have dropped off the money in the north carolina area their stops included mountain home mini storage a hundred unit storage warehouse 15 miles south of asheville what we did was we put out communications through our network of fbi offices and resident agencies all along that corridor to go to all of the storage facilities within their territory to show the pictures that we had of phil johnson to describe what had happened to see if there was anyone that had storage facilities in any of the aliases that we had and whether they could put an alias with a face and in hopes of finding the money nevertheless no employees at the mountain home mini storage recognized pictures at johnson the investigators left the facility even though they were within yards of the locker where johnson had stopped the van and unload the money for months the trail grew cold authorities had little idea of where johnson was they worried that he had safely traveled to brazil where the united states had no extradition treaty but their greater fear was about the money the question on everybody's mind was what did johnson do with the 18.8 million dollars some thought he might have buried the money hoping to come back years in the future when fewer people were looking for him the fbi worried that he might crate it and ship it out of the country others thought that johnson was ornery enough to burn it all just despite loomis fargo and i think we all believed that if we found the perpetrator we would find the money and that the reverse might not necessarily have been true five months later johnson made a fateful mistake for reasons still unclear he tried to sneak back into the u.s from mexico at the gateway international bridge in brownsville texas the american customs officials asked everyone off a northbound bus and began a routine inspection of the passengers customs inspector virginia rodriguez walked right past a wanted poster for johnson as she crossed to the bus but she didn't recognize him in the months since the heist johnson had lost weight added a beard and let his hair grow long she asked him what he had been doing in mexico for two weeks he said he had been visiting friends it was the way he said it that wasn't quite convincing to her she asked for identification and johnson handed over a north carolina driver's license on a hunch rodriguez gave the license to a fellow customs agent to run through the national crime information center database meanwhile rodriguez asked to inspect johnson's bags when she went through his luggage she found 10 714 us dollars rodriguez knew she was on to something okay we got a problem with him on id check we're gonna have to detain him her fellow agent returned with the news that the name on the license roger d lauter was an alias for philip johnson the computer search came back with the flash alert will extradite from anywhere in the world at that time he was taken into custody and the fbi office in brownsville texas was notified that mr johnson had been apprehended when we heard that he finally got caught down in brownsville texas by riding on a bus with fake identification and ten thousand dollars on him we just shook our heads in amazement and said we thought this guy was a lot smarter than he turned out to be it's because he was just an average guy so when he finally got caught in such an average way we really shouldn't have expected anything else johnson was arrested and charged with armed robbery kidnapping and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution if convicted on all counts he faced a maximum sentence of life in prison and a million-dollar fine federal officials offered johnson a deal in exchange for the missing money but johnson spurned any cooperation thinking the money was safely hidden he was wrong when johnson was arrested using the alias of roger lotter fbi detectives discovered that a man using the same name had rented a room in mexico city a search of the boarding room yielded a yellow receipt from mountain home mini storage at two in the morning on september 17 1997 fbi agents rolled up the door of the unit johnson had rented they found the missing bloom of sparky johnson left some personal items including a book on depression and the videotape if i'm so wonderful why am i still single from the brownsville arrest and the mountain home store chart the fbi recovered all but 100 000 of the millions that had been stolen with the overwhelming evidence there was little need for a trial johnson pled guilty to the charges of kidnapping money laundering and violation of interstate commerce under the house act he was sent to a maximum security federal prison where he currently serves a 25-year sentence the restitution he owes loomis fargo is 59 834.70 it will be paid back through prison labor and a lot less than seven dollars an [Music] [Music] hour [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Wonder

Views: 946,451

Keywords: Wonder, bank robbery history, crime investigation, dangerous escapades, daring criminals, daring maneuvers, daring theft stories, elaborate schemes, fascinating crimes, illicit adventures, infamous criminals, largest cash heist, lawless deeds, money theft cases, notorious criminals, risky burglaries, security guard heist, sophisticated thieves, stolen fortune incidents, thrilling crimes, true crime documentary

Id: Fvyl6i2xQQk

Length: 25min 35sec (1535 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020