While the guard was in the store, a gunman stuck a shotgun in the slot of the armored car and managed to get control of the vehicle. According to FBI records in Washington, the largest robbery from an armored car service was in 1982, when $11 million was taken from a Sentry Armored Car Courier Co. office in the Bronx. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Date: March 24, 1972. Gerassimo Captain Mike Vinieris, 35, who was charged with helping to hide some of the loot, was convicted of interstate transportation, conspiracy and making false statements to investigators, Garcia said. Mr. Laster, head of the New York bureau of the F.B.I., and Chief Sullivan stressed that there was no evidence any force had been used in the crime and that technically no robbery had been committed, as Mr. Potamitis had asserted. His partner in crime, 21-year-old George Legaki voluntarily showed up for questioning and was taken on the spot. There was Robert "Bobby" Germaine and Alan Visconti, two associates of the Lucchese crime family, Ali-Ben, a contract killer for the Turkish mafia, and his brother-in-law, Al Green. Josh Fields for Yordan Alvarez (8/1/16) #LevelUp . Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Sentry guard Christos Potamitis, 25, let in his associates drop in from the ceiling, then handcuffed himself to make it appear that he had been overpowered. After that he crossed the border into Mexico, taking $50,000 with him (the maximum that could be taken without authorization). Ira H. Block, the chief prosecutor in the trial, told the jury that a guard, the only one on duty when the theft took place at the Sentry Armored Courier Corporation, contended that he had been overpowered by two masked gunmen in an armed robbery. When they get out, theycould still have a decent pile of money on which to live as long as moving to Russia is an option. NEW YORK -- The $8 million theft from the Sentry Armored Car depot may be the biggest cash robbery in Amercian history but it is far from the $400 million world's record. Nicholas Gregory, 41, an alleged mastermind of the December 1982 robbery who was a fugitive for two years, was convicted of bank robbery, interstate transportation of stolen goods, conspiracy and theft of food stamps, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Garcia. May 1 (UPI) -- A dog brought into a West Virginia animal shelter was found to have been missing for 6 years from a Virginia home 470 miles away. The crime happened on a weekend before millions of dollars left on Monday, lending to the biggest cash robbery in US history at the time. March 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. Further investigation unveiled the connection between the gang and the whole crime scheme. It wasn't an armed robbery,' McCarthy said. Witnesses and police said the robbers were armed with a semiautomatic pistol and at least one machine gun. Loomis Fargo's bad-luck streak continued, losinganother hefty $17.3 just over half a year later, in October, in Maiden, North Carolina. The $30-million in cash and valuables would be worth roughly $170 million today. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Date: October 4, 1997. Single guys as I remember on certain nights. Sentry Armoured Car Company robbery. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The following morning Ghantt was the main suspect at work as the only absent employee, as well as seen on cameras. Five of the perpetrators were sent to prison, but the authorities managed to recover only $1.5 million of stolen money. by | Nov 21, 2021 | rap record labels accepting demos 2021 | macy's dining room clearance | Nov 21, 2021 | rap record labels accepting demos 2021 | macy's dining room clearance The police were able to link these two heists, then figured out that the gang traveled to California using their real names. The guard claimed thatthievesjumped him, but the prosecution knew better. His position allowed him to examine the companys armored car depot thoroughly. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Dubious From the Start. On the night of the theft, Mr. Potamitis was guarding more than $20 million in cash, coins and checks. The robbers started slowly laundering stolen cash through property deals and phony businesses, but one sloppy robber lent some of the money to a friend in its original cash straps. SENTRY ROBBERY TERMED 'FAKED' AT FEDERAL TRIAL, https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/26/nyregion/sentry-robbery-termed-faked-at-federal-trial.html. A group of ostriches are caught in the act as they dance around in circles, competing amongst themselves. Lee F. Laster, an assistant director of the F.B.I., said he was ''optimistic about getting a good chunk of the money back.'' Upon stealing a lump of cash and valuables from banks and corporations, many criminals face prison, with only some of the money recovered. The Sameplace bar and club. If you accept the concept that nobody woke up then decided to become a big-time bank robber, then you have to wonder how these folks wound up on this list. 2011 - 2023 PaySpaceMagazine. Missing dog found 6 years later, 470 miles from home. The guard, Cristos Potamitis, 25 years old, of Astoria, Queens, was arrested yesterday afternoon at the pool of a hotel in San Juan, P.R., where he was vacationing. Phillip Noel Johnson, a driver for Loomis Fargo, overpowered two co-workers to take almost $19-million. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. He added that the jury must determine ''whether that robbery was staged or whether it was for real. PaySpace Magazine Global offers you tofind out what the greatest thefts on American soil were and how they were committed. It does not store any personal data. "They were just exiting to make the delivery.". sentry armoured car company robberyalexa call my phone goes to voicemail Date: March 29, 1997. The investigators linked these two heists and figured out that the gang traveled to California using their real names. sentry armoured car company robberydoorstead property management. Stolen from the Pierre Hotel in New York, the legendary heist was worth $27 Million. The theft was planned by Mr. Potamitis and Mr. Legakis and others, Chief Sullivan said. On March 29, 1997, in Jacksonville, Florida, Loomis Fargo lost $18.8 million in the fourth-biggest heist in American history. All told, youre staring down the barrel of almost$100-million in robberies. In August he tried to move back to the U.S., but due to his suspicious responses to Customs Agents questions, he came under the scrutiny of the authorities. Both men are single. NEW YORK (AP) _ Two more men were found guilty Thursday night on charges arising from the theft of $11 million from the Sentry Armored Car Co., the largest cash robbery in U.S. history. New York is plagued with historically-big crimes, while Loomis Fargo may just be the unluckiest rich company in America, losing over $36 million in six short months. It goes down as the single greatest take in US history. Ghantt just loaded more than $17.3 million into a branded truck then went on to move the cash to private cars with his associates. Location: The Bronx, New York. The key witness against Gregory and Vinieris was Eddie Argitakos, one of three men convicted earlier in the case. Asked by reporters how the two men had the sophistication to commit the crime, Chief Sullivan said, ''It doesn't require any great brains to pull a larceny like this in such a poorly guarded place.''. This was not a good year for Loomis Fargo. In announcing the arrests, Federal and New York law-enforcement authorities said none of the money had been recovered. Five of the criminals faced prison charges, with only $1.5 million ever recovered. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". It took place on March 24, 1972, days after the main culprits Amil and James Dinsio, professional criminals from Ohio, flew in their nephews, brother-in-law, and two associates for the heist in Laguna Niguel, California. -$3.3 million in cash was taken by four gunmen from the First National Bank of Arizona in Tucson, April 22, 1981, in the nation's biggest bank robbery. The North Carolina heist was the smaller take out of the two at $17-million. But anyway, we discovered there's plenty of 3rd party left luggage near the station. The bottom of this pile at only $11-million, the Sentry Armored heist was at the time the largest cash take to date. A vault supervisor, along with his girlfriend and seven co-conspirators were directly involved. Larry Andersen for Jeff Bagwell (1989) 1. Johnson hid the money and moved to Mexico, but tried to return to the US too soon, in August. A prosecutor asserted at the opening of a Manhattan trial yesterday that more than $11 million had been stolen from a Bronx armored-car company in ''a faked and staged robbery.''. CBS Evening News for Saturday, Feb 05, 1983. "The Lufthansa Heist" was the largest cash robbery at the time in American history with an estimated $5.9 million stolen. A joint task force of Bronx detectives and FBI agents, assigned to the $11 million heist, was investigating the latest theft, McCarthy said. Anyhow, nearly $2 million of stolen cash is still missing to this day. They acquitted one man. Date: December 12, 1982. They used dynamite to blast a hole in the roof of the safe deposit vault at United California Bank and looted $30 million in cash and valuables. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. 4 GUNMEN ROB ARMORED TRUCK AT GALLERIA TAKE UNKNOWN AMOUNT FROM 2 BRINK'S GUARDS. Upon renting a townhouse, they planned and carried out the heist by disarming the alarms and blasting a hole in the bank's safe deposit vault roof with dynamite. He faces a possible 25-year sentence. "The bank guards came out of the truck at this time," Cheektowaga Lt. James Morath said. aba fishing 2022 schedule oklahoma 01 Aug 2022 Sentry Armoured Car Company robbery. Before the $11 million theft, the previous record cash theft in the United States was the $5.8 million in cash and jewelry stolen from the Lufthansa cargo area at Kennedy International Airport in December 1978. The crime was planned for a weekend before millions of dollars in cash receipts would go to the banks on Monday. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. There were sixteen others who had a hand in it, but policeonly arrestedeight. October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery. One day they noticed that they got away with something, maybe an accident. Date: December 12, 1982. He drew a 15-year sentence and acknowledged that he hoped to have it reduced by cooperating with authorities. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Netherlands. Later officials found a townhouse the robbers rented in California to stage their heist. It was the inside job that the thieves disguised to look like a standard heist. The Police Department's chief of detectives, James T. Sullivan, described as a fabrication Mr. Potamitis's description of the theft. United California Bank robbery. On this day, Dec. 12, in 1982, two masked men with a shotgun punched a hole through a tar paper and wood roof from an armored car company headquarters in the Bronx, N.Y., and staged the largest cash robbery in U.S. history at that time, stealing an estimated $11 million. Hollywood just made a movie about this one:Masterminds. The other suspect, George Legakis, 21, a part-time cook from Brooklyn, was arrested Tuesday night when he voluntarily appeared for questioning at the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in lower Manhattan. New York Armored Car Co. Robbery / Follow-Up. Burke was never formally charged and got away with $5 million cash and $875,000 in jewels. However, the next morning Ghantt was considered to be the prime suspect as he was the only missing employee. official said. ''The key word in this case,'' he told the jury, ''will be the credibility of the witnesses. '', ''Unknown thieves'' broke into the Sentry building and carried out the $11 million robbery, Mr. Roseman said. They flawlessly performed the heist at 3:04 on January 2nd, 1972, taking 19 hostages at the scene. The grocery store didnt charge them for something or nobody noticed their cash drawer was light at work. Mr. Potamitis originally told investigators that two armed men broke into the company's office and garage through a roof, overwhelmed him and threatened to kill him. The defendants are the guard, Christos Potamitis . Sentry Armoured Car Company robbery. Save. Source: pixabay.com. The Sentry guard and three other men are charged with conspiracy in the theft from the company's depot in the Bronx on the night of Dec. 12, 1982. dave chappelle: the closer vinyl. NEW YORK -- Sentry Armored Car-Courier, which was robbed of a record-breaking $11 million dollars two weeks ago, told police Friday another $225,000 has been stolen from the same vault, officials . 'At 8 p.m. (Wednesday) when they went to load it on a van they saw two bags,' McCarthy said. The Dunbar Armored heist took place in September of that year, besting the previous two armored company heists, almost crossing the 19-million mark. Five men were later arrested, including one who was found by FBI agents in Puerto Rico sunning himself at a hotel pool. In the end, they only sentenced five men, all undone by their individual self-interests when questioned by the authorities. All authoritieshad to do was get the guard talking. The key witness against Gregory and Vinieris was Eddie Argitakos, one of three men convicted earlier in the case. The Paradise Club is a regular swingers venue. Eight of them received maximum life sentences. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). Another big robbery occurred during a time of turmoil -- the 1976 Lebanese civil war when bandits ransacked safety deposit boxes in the vaults at the British Bank of the Middle East. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, As supporters pray, Kim Pegula's father shares her words: 'I will continue to fight', Prayer and healing vigil for Bills and Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula scheduled for Saturday, WGRZ meteorologist Elyse Smith exiting station after three years, Bills GM Brandon Beane on potential DeAndre Hopkins trade: 'I don't think that's going to happen', Many Bills fans stumped by identity of social media influencer who announced third-round pick, Ex-Sabres defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, on the payroll through 2027-28, comes out of retirement to play in Germany, Nicholas D'Angelo pleads guilty to 8 felonies in rape case, Departure of 5 UB women's basketball commits raises eyebrows among coaches, analysts, Erik Brady: 20 years later, Drew Rosenhaus recounts how he fooled the Bills into drafting Willis McGahee, Bills' draft grades from Buffalo News writers show hits and misses, Mark Gaughan: Buffalo Bills' winners and losers after 2023 NFL draft, Alan Pergament: JP starts on WECK Monday after all; Jennifer Stanonis rejoins WGRZ-TV, Seneca Nation plans to bid for McKinley Mall, Former waitress sentenced to 2 to 5 years in prison in $50,000 lottery scheme, Bills trade up in first round, select Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid at No. 11 Number of rooms 318 m. Mr. Legakis, who lives at 8640 18th Avenue in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, was arraigned last night and held in $1.5 million . Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Samuel Nalo and Robert Comfort went down in history in 1972 with a crime in the Guinness World Records as the "most successful hotel robbery." Upon loading over $17.3 million into a branded truck, Ghantt moved the cash to private cars with his associates. The downfall of the robbers was that it was an inside job. Nicholas Gregory, 39, of Queens, was also named as a defendant in the indictment, but he remained a fugitive. Keep reading with unlimited digital access. They loaded their take into a U-haul and left. Terry Pegulas ask was simple, direct and humble: The Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres owner, speaking in a recorded video message, asked fans, The national effort to shed a greater spotlight on what advocates believe is improper content available to children in school libraries has ta. Amount: $11 million. O n this day, Dec. 12, in 1982, two masked men with a shotgun punched a hole through a tar paper and wood roof from an armored car company headquarters in the Bronx, N . April 28 (UPI) -- A British piercing enthusiast broke his own Guinness World Record when the number of flesh tunnels in his face increased to 17. You have permission to edit this article. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. He also knew that the vault would be open on a Friday night when large quantities of money were removed. Seven months before the crime described above, Loomis Fargo lost even more cash in a heist performed by its armored car driver Philip Noel Johnson. Less than $2 million of the loot has been recovered. United Calif. Bank robbery (1972, $30M) 2. 383,953. The gang escaped with 120 mailbags containing 2.6 million pounds. The guard who was on duty on the night of an $11 million theft at a Bronx armored-car company and a friend of his were charged yesterday with stealing the money and attempting to camouflage the crime as an armed robbery. Website See the article in its original context from. How to avoid card fraud: 3 tips from an anti-fraud specialist, Neiman Marcus bankruptcy: what happened to iconic US retailer, JCards Launches Time-Tracking App for Mobile Workforces, Walmart Suit Seeks to End Capital One Card Relationship, BNP Paribas Selects Worldline to Reduce Iban Fraud in Sepa Direct Debits, Nigerian SEC Considers Tokenized Assets Not Crypto, Chase Powers New Rewards for Amazon Prime Visa Cardholders, HumanForest Raises $15 Million to Grow UK eBike Business, JPMorgan to Take Over First Republic Bank. Money Heist, also known as La Casa de Papel, is a Spanish series released on Netflix. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. However, history dictates that the most notorious criminals will overcome challenges to get rich on the spot. and Police Department officials said they doubted Mr. Potamitis's account of the robbery. Caught hot-handed, only about $5 million of the cash was ever recovered. From the start of the investigation, F.B.I. has jurisdiction in the case. These thieves thought they would. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. senior housing bloomfield, nj. Notes: New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987; Italian translation: Giuffre Editore, 1988; Japanese translation: Iwanami, 1988. Copsfound a townhouse the boys rented in California to stage their heist. Both weathered and new criminals stole hefty sums, with still-pending investigations, and much of the money often unrecovered. The guard, 25-year-old Christos Potamitis, composed . The authorities convicted eight more people for the crime and found sixteen others of indirect involvement. On June 26, an armored truck was robbed of $10.8 million in a Rochester suburb, the largest amount taken from an armored vehicle in U.S. history. -$2.47 million cash was taken from a parked Brink's armored car in New York City's borough of Staten Island in December 1978. Upon giving suspicious responses at Customs, the agents put him under the scrutiny of the authorities and arrested him for carrying multiple passports. When his armed associates punched a hole in the wooden roof of the armored car companys headquarters, Potamitis let them in and handcuffed himself to make it look like he had been overpowered. There you have it. He was being flown back to New York last night from San Juan. also were interviewing people inside the Key Bank branch, which is across from Ruby Tuesday's. 'Apparently, they didn't get excited about it. Colorado law seeks to prevent and hide information about medication abortion reversal, Crenshaw dubs TikTok 'ultimate psychological warfare weapon,' signals support for absolute ban, Trump lawyers ask for mistrial in E Jean Carroll defamation and battery case, Reporters Notebook: Democrats Joe Manchin problem, Reporters Notebook: Republicans take a hammer to Dems climate law. Authoritiesrecovered $1.5-million of the stolen goods, which makes this the only case in this list where the bad guys may have gotten away with it. The defendants are the guard, Christos Potamitis, 24 years old, of Queens; Eddie Argitakos, 24, an accountant in Queens; his father, Steven Argitakos, 58, the owner of a Queens travel agency, and Demetrious Papadakis, 35, who worked in a Queens diner. All Charged With Conspiracy. Meu negcio no Whatsapp Business! Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Date: September 12, 1997. See the article in its original context from. Investigators believe it was an inside job, and say the latest robbery may also have been committed by a Sentry employee. A ferocious cape cobra is seen eating and swallowing another snake whole in a matter of only a few minutes. All rights reserved. There were four or five other co-conspirators in this heist. sentry armoured car company robbery. The crime was disclosed when one of the thieves gave one of the brokers he dealt with a stack of cash with the original currency straps on it. These stories, of course, are not allthe heists out there. It was the biggest cash robbery in US history at that time. Thiswas the second largest cash robbery at the time, right behind the Florida Loomis Fargo robbery. All four defendants were charged with conspiracy. NEW YORK (AP) _ Two more men were found guilty Thursday night on charges arising from the theft of $11 million from the Sentry Armored Car Co., the largest cash robbery in U.S. history. The crime is the longest in American history under investigation, with the latest arrest in 2015. Nalo and Comfort respectively planned and organized the heist on the Pierre Hotel, with a diverse group of criminals involved in direct action. Dunbar Armoured robbery. They thought it was about someplace,' said McCarthy. Reply. Pace learned the inner workings and security procedures at the Dunbar facility in Los Angeles during his employment, including cameras, and timed the heist to avoid them. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. roanoke times obituaries 2020,