1999 Loomis truck robbery

The 1999 Loomis truck robbery was a daring currency heist of a Loomis, Fargo & Co. semi-trailer truck on March 24, 1999, still unsolved. At some point during its route transporting money from Sacramento, California to San Francisco, one or more robbers boarded the truck, cut a hole in the roof, removed approximately 2.3 million dollars, and disappeared with the money, completely evading detection by the truck's driver and guards. The robbery was not discovered until after the truck arrived at its destination. No suspects were ever identified by authorities and the theft is now a cold case. Even the exact tools and methods used by robber or robbers were never conclusively determined.^[1]

Robbery

On a rainy night at approximately 7:30 PM on March 24, 1999, a semi-trailer truck departed the Loomis Depot in Sacramento for a money transport run to the depot in San Francisco, using Interstate 80.^[2] While the cab portion of the truck was armored, the trailer carrying the money was not. The trailer was made of simple aluminum, with the only security measures being a locked door equipped with an alarm. For years, Loomis had used unarmored trailers to transport their coin shipments, figuring coins alone were such a meager amount of money that they did not require heavy security. But starting in the 1990s, Loomis began including paper money in their shipments as a cost-saving measure. Onboard was 58-year old driver Howard Brown, along with guards Frank Bettencourt and Ken Montgomery.^[1]

Other than traffic lights and stop signs, the trip from Sacramento to San Francisco involved only one stop, at a truck scale in Cordelia, near Fairfield, California. After this, the truck proceeded on to its destination, arriving at the Loomis depot in San Francisco around 9:40 PM. Bettencourt then unlocked the rear doors, opened them up, and was shocked to discover the floor of the trailer was covered in rainwater. Then he saw a large hole in the roof, later telling the San Francisco Chronicle, "My eyes just kind of looked up at the ceiling of the truck. The hole had a very jagged shape with the edges pointed down into the truck. It was not a very cleanly cut hole. It had a trapdoor-type of look to it."^[1]

At first the guards thought the truck had been hit by lightning, or maybe even by a meteor, but this was soon ruled out as they discovered roughly 270 pounds of cash, worth about 2.3 million dollars, was missing.^[1] Bettencourt told the San Francisco Chronicle, "He was a Houdini in my mind. ... This is the most daring robbery I can imagine. He did this without us even having a clue. Everything that he needed to go right, did go right."^[1]

Investigation

The subsequent criminal investigation of the robbery was handled by the

The FBI eventually found two witnesses who had been motorists driving behind the truck. They reported that as the truck pulled into the weigh station near Fairfield, they saw a man in dark clothing jump off the truck and run through roadside fields in the direction of nearby Solano Community College. The man did not appear to be carrying anything.^[3] The robber apparently counted on the truck stopping at the scales in tiny Cordelia, "something we didn't do all the time but 99 percent of the time," Bettencourt said.^[1]

Ultimately it was never determined exactly how many people were involved, nor how exactly they carried the robbery out. Since the trailer did not have a ladder attached to the outside, and the doors were still locked with the alarm set when it reached its destination, the primary theory is that the robbery started back in Sacramento as the truck was pulling out of the depot. It is believed that the robber or robbers jumped from the roof of the depot onto the top of the trailer. Then during the one-hour trip between Sacramento and the truck scale near Fairfield, they cut their way through the roof, dropped down into the trailer, put the stolen money in bags, and then threw them out onto the side of the road to be retrieved later, either by themselves or by accomplices following the truck in a vehicle. Then once the truck stopped at the weigh station, the robber or robbers took the opportunity to jump off the truck and make their escape.^[4][1] Nick Rossi, a spokesman for the FBI's Sacramento office told the San Francisco Chronicle, "I cannot think of any similar case nationwide. It almost harkens back to train robberies."^[1]

Aftermath

No suspects were ever found, despite the FBI investigation and Loomis offering a large financial reward for leads. The company, which had been in the process of switching to armored trailers at the time the robbery took place, discontinued the practice of transporting paper money in unarmored trailers shortly after the robbery.

"This was one of the very few we had left,” a Loomis executive vice president, Mike Tawney, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “This may have been the last truck."^[1]

References