Close But No Cigar: The Nearly Perfect Dunbar Heist of 1997

It was meticulously planned, it was executed brilliantly, their alibis were unimpeachable, their getaway plan was flawless, and their money laundering scheme a thing of beauty. So then, what went wrong? Why the hell are they on this show? The Dunbar Heist of 1997 is one of those crime tales that will make you say: you have got to be kidding me!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Hey Elizabeth, Hey over here. Nice, Hey, it's you.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
It's me.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I've been waiting to see you because I have this
question I wanted to ask you. Yeah, good, okay, here,
it's a simple question. Sure, do you know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 4 (00:15):
I do what? I too? Walt Disney?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
What?

Speaker 4 (00:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:20):
How?

Speaker 4 (00:20):
So do you know what his last words were?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Help?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm trapping his box, let me out.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
He was all so cold. I have no idea his
last words. Okay.

Speaker 5 (00:29):
So he passed away in nineteen sixty six cancer and
he's on his deathbed and he asked for a notepad
and he scribbles down a bunch of stuff, and then
his last words were, Kurt Russell, what are you kidding?

Speaker 4 (00:47):
I'm dead serious.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
He was a child actor for him at the time,
and he's not like, you know, referring to him as
Snake pliskin.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Right, Yeah, he was a child actor.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
He'd done Disney stuff, you know, the Barefoot Executive, the
Computer War, tennis shoes.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
Totally horse in the gray flannel.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Suit, another classic.

Speaker 5 (01:02):
All absolutely, he had a ten year contract and so
they had become friends, but no one's really sure why
his last words were Kurt Russell.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I wonder if Kurt Russell knows this well.

Speaker 5 (01:14):
They asked him and he was in twenty seventeen interview
with Hauvington Post.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
All he had to say was, O, G, I.

Speaker 5 (01:21):
Don't know what it's connected to, which makes me think
he does know what it's connected.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Kurt Russell knows where the bodies are buried. What's going on? Kurt?

Speaker 5 (01:29):
Yeah, so that's his I mean, maybe he was I
don't know what he scribbled in the notebook. Maybe it
was brainstorminge.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
He's like, we got to get Kurt Russell.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
Russell's overboard goldie hawn.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
So yeah, that's ridiculous, ridiculous to have Kurt Russell is
not standing over you.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
He's not like Kurt Russell extreming exclamation point.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Wow, yeah wow.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I learned something new every day and today That's what.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
I was a little worried that. I say, do you
know what Disney's last words were? Well, Disney's last words,
and you go, Kurt Russell.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Course, I've never heard that he did it. I got
one for you. I could go tip for tatt. Yeah, well, Elizabeth,
you know, we say here and we tell each other
these strange, elaborate stories on air. Tales are forgers, frauds,
art capers, bank robberies, jewelry heist and they all have
one thing in common. You know what that is, right,
ridiculous The purps get caught. Yeah, I got a hell

(02:29):
of a story for you. It's about a daring, outrageous heist.
It went well right right up until it went bad.
But the real fun part is how it went wrong
and why they got caught.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
I love when things go wrong, right.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
So you're ready for a tale of close but no cigar?

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Yes? Please?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
This is ridiculous crime a podcast and adam surd and
outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always nine to nine
percent murder free and one hundred percent or ridiculous. Elizabeth
Theren do you know where the saying close but no
cigar comes from?

Speaker 4 (03:25):
Close but no cigar?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I had to look this up.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Were you winning a cigar for something good?

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Look at you?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
It's a carnie term. It dates back to the early
decades of the last century. In the nineteen twenties, basically,
smoking was still a very popular habit and folks, you know,
they rolled their own smokes. They also bought the new
machine factured cigarettes. That was a big thing, right, but
they were also partially obs of pipes. But the big
deal was cigars. That was like, oh, this is a
fine coach cuban exactly right. So when folks would they

(03:53):
would stroll the midway at a fair or carnival and
they'd play the games of chance, often the prize was
a cigar. And as you know, the games of the
midway were always difficult to win because they're mostly rigged
not to be easy to win, but they still had
some small chance to win because you had to have
somebody win occasionally, right yeah, and you know not everyone
could be the sucker. But since someone had to win,
the cigars were for the rare winners. And so therefore

(04:16):
we have the common saying close but no cigar, and
then the.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
Six year olds are like, exactly a big.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Curse, and then go back to their day job. Now
I have one less fun bit for you about close
but no cigar that I found while I was looking
up where this came from. Can you guess what popular
artists recorded a song with that very same title.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Close but no Cigar. I'll give you a head, yes please.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
He's weird. Yes, I didn't even have to give you
the second hint.

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Well it's weird.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, all right, so yes, weird. Al Yankovic the lyrics
to a song close but no Cigar are Well, they're
certifiably weird. They are. I looked at him and I
was like, wow, I've seen why. I've never heard of
this song, but I want to give you this a
taste of the lyrics.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Is it one of his parody songs?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I'll answer that in a second. Right, here's some lyrics.
Then I met sweet young Janet, prettiest thing on the planet,
had a body hotter than a hobbin yarrow. She had
lips like a right pomegranate, and I was crazy like
Manson about her. She got me all choked up like
Mama Cass. She had a smile so incredibly radiant you

(05:17):
had to watch it through a piece of smoked glass.
I thought, after all these years of searching around, I'd
found my soulmate finally. But one day I found out
she actually owned a copy of Joe Dirt on DVD.
Oh no, I said, Hey, are we lobbing handgard aids kiddo, No,
I don't think we are. You're close close, Oh so
very close. Close. Yeah, baby, you're close, close, so close,

(05:40):
But no cigar. So obviously that track was not one
of his more beloved heads. Yeah, not one of his knockoffs,
not a parody song. It's a weird awl original.

Speaker 5 (05:48):
Oh yeah, and jac starts very like Fresh Prince.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Totally right. I mean I did the rhythm little different
the rhythm, but the uh I didn't put the tune
so much in the long range. Yeah, there you go,
and you can see why he sticks to knockoffs. Yeah,
because we can't all be Bob Dylan. But anyway, how
did this gang of criminals I'm about to tell you
get close? But no cigar? Great question, Elizabeth, thank you.
You ready to hear about the great Dunbar Armored Truck

(06:14):
heist of nineteen ninety seven.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
I was born ready Now, this one goes down.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
In my old city, Los Angeles. It features a crack
amateur heist team. So I loved all about the research
of this one. Yeah, there was the ring leader, this
cat named Alan paced the third shout out for the
Trips of the World. Now, originally he was from Compton.
He worked at the Dunbar Armored Truck facility in downtown LA.
That meant he knew obviously the routines of the place.

(06:40):
He knew the layout of the secure facility, he knew
the personnel. He basically was an insider. He also knew
the best day to hit his employer for a planned
inside job. But he also knew he couldn't do it alone.
So he decided, you know, if I'm going to pull
up this off, I need to make this work to
eat myself some millions as a big payback against my employer.
Who ooh, Elizabeth, can I bring in for my HEIGST team.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
His best friends?

Speaker 2 (07:04):
You're on plot.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
I was one of the team.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
I'm telling you.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
I was on the Dunbar's incredible.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, I thought, are you gonna look for hard men
fresh out of the federal pen? No veteran bank robbers? No, No,
He's like, I want loyalty, trust men I know personally, men.
I can rely on men whose families I know their
home addresses. So he picked his childhood friends, which can
be a dicey proposition. Yeah, enter Freddie Lynn McCrary Junior,
Eugene Lamar Hill Junior, and Terry Wayne Brown Senior. There

(07:35):
were two other members of the height team who weren't
named after their fathers or named their sons after them.
The other two were Eric Damon Boyd and Thomas Lee.
Not r Thomas Lee who did our theme song with
your Brother Trap. His full name was Thomas Lee Johnson.
Now this is our crew, six men in total. Together
they plan to pull off one of the most successful
armored car heights in American history. Now, Alan Pace thirty

(07:56):
two years old at the time. Big dream of a
major heights for ay young man. He's ambitious, brimming with
over confidence, but he wasn't cocky, he wasn't sloppy. He
planned his robbery down to the finest detail. I mean
it was a beautifully simple plan, but just beautifully rot right.
It helped that he was the safety inspector at the
downtown La Dunbar Vault site. That meant he knew not

(08:17):
only the daily operations, he knew the building security protocols.
He knew the personnel their work schedules. He knew the
schedules of the armored card deliveries so when the money
was coming in and being delivered out. So he knew
basically how to pry open this secure facility like he
had a can opener yea. His plan though, was just
you know, as I said, simple break in scare the security,
and you know then since it Caldron scare tactics, He's like, Okay,

(08:39):
I don't want my fellow personnel at Dunbar to try
to play the hero. So I'm gonna need some heavy weaponry.
Oh yeah, because there are there arm guards. When they're
walking around the ball, they all got guns on him, right,
So he lines up some guns for the jobs. He's like, oh,
what am I gonna need? Oh you know, I'm gonna
need a sawed off shotgun. I'm gonna need some handguns.
So he goes picks those up off the street, not
like off the street street, but like some street buyer.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Doing like a street cleanup, and a little grabbersticks.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Like at the beach. Whead's like in tennis grenade. Perfect.
I could use this. So next he's like, okay, what
else do I need? We got to hide our faces,
so he goes out gets some ballaklava face mask aka
you know like black ski masks. Right. He also he's like,
we're gonna need to talk to each other in case
we get separated. Walkie talkie radio sets right away. Really
good communication's key. So after these initial supplies are set,

(09:24):
he starts going over the plan with his childhood friends
who he now brings in and they're like, oh word,
I'm down. I like this plan right, So together they
scope out the floor plans of the vault facility that
he draws up from memory. He drills this heist team
until they know the layout nearly as well as he did,
because you don't want to get lost in a place
like that when you're going a robbery in case anything
to go sideways, some guard surprises you. There's always you

(09:47):
know something. So once they had it all down, he's like, Okay,
now I'm going to show you guys the camera rotations
and the timing so we can walk through and they
sleep on this pace, and so they work out pass
so they can avoid any clear face shots. This guy
is meticulous right now. He also specified all the internal
doors they would need to encounter on the way to
the vault and on their way out for their escape plan.

(10:08):
I mean, it's just reading about it, I'm like, how
did this go wrong?

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Well?

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Now, Elizabeth, as you and I often talk about movies,
you know, when we're just hanging out, not doing the show.
And I often will cite the British commando from the
movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. He's got a
very famous saying there's always the unexpected, isn't there?

Speaker 6 (10:25):
Right?

Speaker 2 (10:25):
And that to me is a life mantra. I wish
these guys knew it.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
Did these guys watch heat?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
I mean that seems to be a commentation.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, Michael Mann movies are pretty much like, you know,
a graduate seminar on bank robbery for a lot of
these guys. But uh no, they didn't do that. But
they did. I said, perfect plan. Yeah, there's always the unexpected.
So what happened? What was the unexpected? Great question, Elizabeth,
way to have your head in this game. Now, in
this case, the unexpected was alan paced. The third was
fired the day before they're planned heist. Oh no, the

(10:56):
date was nine to eleven, but not nine to eleven
two thousand and one. It was nine to eleven nineteen
ninety seven, So it was like his personal nine to
eleven Carbinger. Yeah. So the story goes he was spotted
tampering with vehicles on the lot and apparently whatever he
was caught doing was bad enough. He was pretty much
fired on the spot. I couldn't get what it was tampering.
But yeah, so what did the heist crew do now
that he's no longer an employee?

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Yeah, he can't get him in, and well of.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Course they go for it anyway, right, I mean can't
perfect planning, what are you gonna do? Yeah, and plus
there's the millions and millions just whispering their name, Come
get us. So the heist is planned for a Friday.
The reason is simple because Fridays is when the Dunbar
vault is holding the most cash. Okay, And not only that,
but on Friday nights, the vault stays open like because
they have all these late night deliveries, so it stays

(11:38):
open till like midnight. And that was dude also, as
I said, the deliveries, but the staff would be working
till like twelve thirty often on a Friday night because
back then the banks would close and this was the
last opportunity to get the last money's in. Right, So
this place it keeps huge stores of cash, right. And
they also on Friday they bring in a couple extra
security guards, which he's well aware about. So they got

(12:00):
the extra security this place, they feel like, oh, we're good,
we're safe. But no, Alan paced third, he knows all
about that, and he's got a plan for it. So
this is where the guns come in, right, and the
well trained heist team. Now, even though you've been fired
one day before, they're planned heist.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
I just I can't get my head around getting fired
the day before. You're big production.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
You might think like this is a sign, but not him.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
Well, and also maybe like play it straight, like what
are you tampering with?

Speaker 4 (12:26):
What are you tinkering around?

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Like just be cool now you're under suspicion. But apparently
this company was not the best at firing employees because
he still had keys to all the buildings tours. They
didn't come in to take the keys when he got
fired all.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
The companies, right, you know, I've worked in places where
we're not doing anything you know, worthwhile. But you have
like nine factor authentication to get into things, and you
have pass codes.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
And new security walking out to the door with a
box with a plant and and all your stuff.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
But this guy, so he's.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Got the keys, he decides we're going for it.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
Can I just have like a couple more days, you guys, exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
I just I don't know which key. Let me separate.
My wife's got my house keys. I need to make copies.
I don't know what the deal was. Read. So the
sun rises over LA on the big day Friday, his
heist team they go over their plan one last time.
They wait for evening because that's when they're going to strike.
The sun finally sets and descends into the Pacific night
descends over La. It's go time, right the heist team. Now,

(13:26):
they didn't drive directly to their target. Instead, the heist
plan called for them to go to a very strange place.
I don't want to take a guess where that strange
place was. I don't think you'll guess it. But no
ice team's opening move was to hit up a late
LA house party, like a nineties LA house party. They're like, yeah,
I was just hit up a house party before the
pre party, before the heist, Like, was this one last

(13:49):
blowout in case they got caught? Maybe it was far
more strategic than that. They planned to hit up this
house party, and so when they dip out to go
hit this house party, the reason was that was their alibi.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
I see, I thought maybe they before they planned the
high state already RSV.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
We can't get out of it? Want to last time?

Speaker 6 (14:11):
Right?

Speaker 2 (14:12):
No, the idea was Allen Pace the third is band
of rogue robbers. Thought we're gonna go hit up a
house party and down in Long Beach. Then we'll sneak
out and then we'll go do the heist, and then
we'll go back to the house party and we'll establish
that we couldn't have been in downtown l A. We've
been in Long Beach.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
Yeah, where were you guys for those couple hours in
the We're you.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Know, hanging out with Derek and Bob. Is cool?

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Separating out the cans from the garbage. Some of us
care about the environment.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Nineteen ninety seven. We're all captain planet over here now. Personally,
I dug the idea. I thought it was kind of
smart move on the surface. I mean, especially if it's
like a huge house party.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
That's the thing you got to You got to make
it big enough, not just like four dudes playing.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, no, it was like a big house party, like
imagining like maybe a band played, or like there was like.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
We're kidn't play there.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's a good call. Great, I didn't. I did never
find that out. But uh. Also, by the way, now
you'd have an alibi of like tens, if not possibly
hundreds of people. That's a pretty strong alibi.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, So quick question, did their house party alibi work?

Speaker 4 (15:09):
No?

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Uh, I'll tell you after this little break, I'll tell
you if their plan worked out or not. And also
rather the specific part of their plan worked out. But first,
let's dig into some ads. Back dig it two.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
And two.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Elizabeth, We're need to get to the heuston.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
Yes, please.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
So it's September twelfth, nineteen ninety seven, the big day,
the day after Alan Pace was fired for damparym vehicles,
and he says, how did the hell with it? We're
going for it and getting my personal revenge. Now rob
the hell out of my old employer. So the crew
that hit up the Long Beach house party, they make
the scene. They're looking clean, they make sure everyone sees them.
They circulate the mixing feel like.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
A dance routine in the middle of the room.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
Well there it is, and like, you guys are so good,
Like I know, I'll be out back.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
I'm gonna go hang out because so and so is rolling.
Now they stablished the alby right, so sometime around midnight,
they bounce out. They're like, okay, we gotta get there
before they close up. They race up from Long Beach,
they sneak away from the party, head out for their
heightst Now what follows I'm about to tell you These
are all details from eyewitnesses to the robbery. Okay gave
sworn testimony to the FBI. According to the FBI's investigation

(16:33):
and witness statements, we know that the staff working at
the Dunbar vault facility was about to close up shop
after midnight Fridays. As they told you, it's common for
them to finish around twelve thirty, which so now I
guess early Saturday morning, So technically the folks work in
the late shift. They were at this point waiting for
a computer print out of all the days deposits and deliveries.
So they're all just kind of like milling about, going

(16:54):
to the break room, going to the bathroom, taking a smoke,
break the top exactly. And at this point there are
security guards in the vault area who are just like
holding it down because they still have tons of cash,
like millions. Yeah, so when one of the Dumbbar employees
dips out to hit the brake room, he runs into
four men who are not supposed to be there. Man,
they're all wearing ski masks and holding quote, stainless steel

(17:16):
semi automatic pistols. That's not right now. This guy's also armed.
But there's four of them, and he's like, I'm not
gonna pull on them. And also I should point out
they weren't stainless steel, like you know kitchen appliances.

Speaker 4 (17:27):
Well, I wonder they have to get those special wipes
to clean them.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
The person eyewitness didn't know it.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Was a stainless steel ratchet. Yeah, a ratchet.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Shoot, yeah, you popped the gun with the ratchets. So
one of the high screens, he tells his unlucky, dumbbar employee,
be quiet, don't do anything stupid. Get on the ground right.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
I would just peel myself at this point. I let's
be real. Yeah, I mean, like you're in a vault
with millions, You're on.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
The way to the bathroom, just like minding, your.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
Already have to do exactly, you already have to go.
And then four that's when either like you never he
again or you just flood it.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Right here, I think flooded.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
I'm just going to keep fixating on the air.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
So they he gets forced to the floor, does not
wet himself. His weapon is taken from him. Again, he
probably did not. He's just now a big salt lick.
So the Highest crew asks him how many people are
in the facility? Right, he answers, He tells him to honestly.
Satisfied by this, one of the crew is like, okay,
probably the ring leader Alan Pace. He's like, tie him up,
and the crew does instruct it. Now I say tie
him up, but actually they duct taped him. They duct

(18:27):
taped his hands together and his feet together, so he's
now like in the prone like fetal position.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
So when the guy before they put it over his mouth,
he's like, well, actually you didn't tie me up, you taped.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Funny that you mentioned that they were supposed to tape
his mouth and they've forgot to do it. They're like,
he won't scream, so full of exactly mouthful hearing, They
rifle through the dude's pockets, they take his keys, and
then they drag him to the ladies room and just
leave him there. Right at this point, now they've got
three security guards. So the high crew they make one
early mistake. They take the guard's keys, but they don't
ask him which keys go to which doors to take

(19:00):
the keys. This matters because when the FBI later hears
about this, they're like, hmm, that sounds like an inside job.
So right away they should have been a little bit
more dedicated the idea of we're robbers as opposed to
we've got a great plan, we know everything. Anyway, Next,
one of the dunbar guards heads to the break room
and promptly runs into the same Ice crew and seeing
the r men, he's like, please don't hurt me. These

(19:21):
their only job is being security guards. And each one
of them went faced with somebody there.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
It's like four against one.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Don't even draw their weapons.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
They then this guy's hungry waiting for the print out.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
It's like a laser dot printer. It's like, come on,
so they are men. They say, okay, man, we won't
hurt you. Get down on the ground. He does. Second
guard bound with duct tape. He's also stuffed in the
ladies room with the first guard. Now the Ice crew
changes their mind about this bathroom stash spot. They double back,
they pull them back out and they put them in
an adjacent office. Oh, one of the high crew then
stays with them to babysit him. He's like, we probably

(19:53):
should you know, there's two of them, they might work
together to pull the tape off or something. So he
uses his walkie talkie to keep me municate with the
others as they're moving deeper into the facility, headed for
the vault. This leaves now at this point, we have
the four guards in the vault and then these two
guys who've been taken or are just like normal ancillary guards. Yeah,
and there's possibly like maybe a secretary out there. They

(20:14):
don't know exactly, but they're feeling pretty good so far,
no sweat, everything's going according to plan. Yeah, ice crew
is able to surprise the remaining guards in the vault.
They subdue them, duck, take them, take their weapons. It's
four on four. None of them draw, so it's like,
what's going on? Are these guys really guards?

Speaker 4 (20:31):
Like, did they recognize him?

Speaker 7 (20:34):
They're wearing the ski masks, so that'd be you now
left bound on the floor, The guards listen as this
high crew begins to make all kinds of noise, like
in the vault and in other places that they can hear,
like on the sides of walls, not like explosions, more
like say, like.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Filing cabinets being pushed over and rifled through like this
strange sound, and then like the wheels going oh, they're
pushing things around. The think gets quiet until they hear
a diesel truck backing up and then boom, it hits
the loading dock. They're like, okay, I think I know
what's going on, right, and guards assume this is just
be how they plan to load the cash they're going
to steal from the vault, which is correct. Ice team

(21:11):
loads three large storage containers of cash, like those kinds
that are on wheels. They have no way, yeah, like
you can put millions in these, right, So they decide
it's gonna be a good haul for us, and they're
all ready to bounce after they got the three loaded up.
So the ice crew returns and they tell the bound guards,
you guys, wait twenty minutes before you do anything, and
then everything would be cool. And then they disappear. Instead

(21:35):
of waiting twenty minutes, the guards wait five.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
They're like that's good Enough's see exactly enough forgot.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Right, So they work their way out of the duct tape.
They retrieve their weapons, and they go and they find
the other guards who are tied up in the vault.
So the first two guards are the ones who free themselves.
Then they go find the other four, they free them
somebody phones nine to one one. Then the guards all
lock themselves in the vault, which I guess is the protocol,
and they wait for the police to arrive.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
This is really traumatic for them. And forget it's like
mid September ninety seven. Princess Diana has only been dead
for like two Oh.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
I'm sure they're all still grieving and they're now going
to have to get back in the job market.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
How how are they going to survive this? And one
of them will never.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Be exactly this is difficult. You never see the trauma coming.
The cops arrive, the guards tell the cops what little
they know. They're like, made some weird sounds. We heard
the wheels, there was a diesel truck boom hit the thing,
the loading dog the report you know. Also, yeah, they
were wearing black ski masks, and then they had black voices,
and then yeah, so that's what they said.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Black voices is like like a selection on a streaming the.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Way listened to black voices?

Speaker 4 (22:37):
What films. Do you want to watch, Let's check the
black voices section.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
So the men go on. By the way, they also
pull like a whole like Tarantina thing where they don't
refer to each other by names. Instead they refer to
each other by pre assigned numbers. So the cops.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Right, but like, were they all prime numbers?

Speaker 2 (22:56):
No, I would have loved that. So one of the
security guards tells the cops he not he recognized one
of the voices. It's a guy who works or rather
worked at Dunbar until one day before.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
This man did not even try. I mean, you're in
a costume, basically, just give the.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Character do Batman voice, you know, come on?

Speaker 5 (23:16):
Yeah, what is nice and squeaky that that hurts less
than the gravelly for me?

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, that's probably true.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
So I would be inclinient your Mickey Mouse.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
You got robbed by Mickey Mouse with like.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
A really offensive accent.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
And they don't make him applicated.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Well, I don't want to replicate your offensive sounds racist. Yeah, Well,
for whatever group you choose.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Was the nineties, people are a lot more politically corrected
at the point.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
So the police at this point they investigate the crime scene, right,
because they get called in and they figure out that
this the five man hight crew that was inside that
they can count, according to the other guards, has gotten
away with millions in US currency. And because they wheeled
out the three large storage containers loaded with all large
denominations of cash, they all picked one, hundreds and twenties
and fives for them, So.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
They load up although it's harder to move.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, well it depends on how you're moving in.

Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
They load them up in the diesel truck and then
drove off with their stolen booty. They left me out
almost zero clues to their identities zero Elizabeth, yeah, zero
zero seal Now, other than the possibility inside job voice
yeah by the guy who got fired the day before,
the LAPD and later the FBI have very few clues
to go on, Like, don't you hate it when that happens.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
It's so frustrating. Happened to be like three.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Times since it was suspected to be an inside job.
All of the dunbar employees working that night. Before they leave,
they get questioned and subjected to like light detector test.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Oh my god, you've been on the clone.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
To go home right now, they're doing a polygraph test.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
But do they get over time for that?

Speaker 2 (24:42):
No, I don't think so. But they all passed the test,
so they got cleared by the FBI and the LAPD.
So FBI is now back to square one. They have
only one good lead on a suspect black voice, possibly
the guy who worked here until he got fired. They
have a few other clues. I should sorry, I should
have mentioned one. As I said, the robbers sounded black,
so they're possible black people. Also, they look to be
black based on the Cheshanks or chet Haanks good call

(25:05):
now based on the color of their skin around the eyes,
which was exposed by the ski masks.

Speaker 4 (25:09):
That'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah. But you know, I've often thought about this. A
little makeup, the skin part could easily be faked.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Very right.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
That's what I would do if I was gonna rob someone,
I would.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
I would have really bad em.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
They're worried about you, and then one.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
Cloudy eye and they're just like, oh buddy, They're looking
for a very particular person.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And to your point about che Hanks as far as
sounding black, I mean that's subjective. I mean Bob Jobby
called well and Michael McDonald both sounded black when they sang.
I mean, so really, what does it mean to sound
black at this point? So, so the real clue the
FBI and LAPD have to go on is not much
other than possibly it was that one guy got fired.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yeah, but is that just because he's on their mind?
They missed him so much.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
That's a good point, like they.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Missed Princess Diana.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Also, there was the keys. I forgot about that they
asked for the keys, and even more strangely, the purpse
fled in one of the employees' cars after taking his keys,
like he always the car. Yeah, but they and also
they didn't ask which keys go to which car?

Speaker 5 (26:11):
But yeah, they were just like I'll just take this
forward tourists out here, Oh I happen to be holding
the keys.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
But also, I mean, only so many employees working that night,
It's not like the lot was full of cars. How
long would it take to try the keys?

Speaker 4 (26:22):
And you just look at it and hit the Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
The Selen car keys. That wasn't really conclusive proof.

Speaker 5 (26:30):
It was in its grab the keys and be like,
oh my gosh, there's so many keys, How will I
ever figure out which one.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
As you want?

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Buttering and frustrated. Yeah yeah, so all these going on,
all they have is basically circumstantial evidence, and so this
perfectly planned and executed heist looks like it's gone off
just brilliantly. No alarms were triggered, no cameras worked to
capture anything. They got all big denomination money wheeled right
out of the vault area, loaded up, quick escape. I mean,
high screw is gone. It's just incredible all by the way,

(26:57):
I know you like this.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
No one got hurt, who I love, except for the
guy whood Again.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
So they also took the security camera footage with them.
They went and they took all the vhs.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
Oh so you can't even look and see like how tall?

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Nothing, So they were smart about that too. The only
piece of hard evidence left behind by the heist crew
was a tail light cover that was knocked off when
the truck backed into the loading dock. They broke a
tail light and a piece of plastic came off. This
is the only hard evidence they have. So how can
they possibly solve a crime with just a piece of
red plastic? Reddit, Yeah, I know Reddit could, but these

(27:33):
are a lapd let's chock. At this point, it sure
looks like the high Cres stolen nineteen million dollars and
disappeared into thin air, leaving nia clue behind.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Nineteen million and in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Seven, Yeah, a lot more value than So what do
you think, Elizabeth, do you think that this one clue
that is all they needed to bust this crew?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (27:53):
You know, if you've got someone in the motor pool
in LAPG who's just like on it, hammering down Megan
Mega Carnard.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Oh, I recognized that also, the FBI forensics team is
going to get involved to Yeah.

Speaker 6 (28:04):
That's true, the exactly So, I'll just cut to the chase.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
It was not enough for them to break the case. Nice,
What about the employee who had been fired the day before?
Was that clue the one that the FBI needed to break.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
The case exactly?

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Again, No, it wasn't. As far as the FBI could tell.
The high Screw pulled off a damn near perfect hes
and gotten away with a clean, cool nineteen mil.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
I am so frustrated that I'm going to find out
what the problem, like, how they blew it?

Speaker 2 (28:33):
You're gonna love it. So what about the party plan?
Did it work to establish their alibi when they went
to check on Allen pace the third they're like, oh, yeah,
go check my alibi at the house party.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Yeah, they were sipping on gin and right.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Well, apparently they did check and his alibi was sworn out.
People like, oh, yeah, he was here at the house party.
And then I saw him again late night at like
one am we were doing the dozens.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
That's a really good That is actually a good thing
because people.

Speaker 5 (28:56):
That have had a little bit of dress substance exactly,
he memory is not good for the memory.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
And they're also not going to want to be like, well,
I don't know there are four hours in the county.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Because they drove to a house, changed clothes, back into
their clothes, and went right back to the house party
in Long Beach and like celebrated, and you knew they
got a lot to celebrate, and once they re established themselves,
it seemed like they've been at the party all night.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
So yeah, they pulled up in a giant exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
With a missing tail light. So what gifts? How did
they end up on this show? Did they break the
basic rule of a heist and start buying all kinds
of extravagant gifts and lavishing themselves with the finer things
in life, getting a oh yeah, no pink Cadillacs for them.
They didn't spend a dime of the money for like
six months. Yeah, this tist crew, amateurs acting like pros.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
Yeah, so what.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Happened, Elizabeth?

Speaker 6 (29:43):
I know.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
The crew was so disciplined. They had an exit plan,
you know, I'm always talking about that, even had a
plan to launder the cash. Wow, there's six month cooling
off period. They put the next part of their plan
into action. They went and they hired themselves with local
immigration lawyer and they offered him and his assistant a
million dollars each if they would help launder the stolen money.
The lawyer heard that, it was like, yeah, let's do this.

(30:08):
So he didn't get I don't know, yeah immigrant, I
just know he's a immigration lawyer. His name is David Matsumoto,
and his assistant was his cat named Joaquin bin Now together, No,
they hired them. They picked him out like yeah, like
I hear, you're kind of dirty, Like I don't know,
I don't know how he's recommended. So the high screw
the immigration lawyer and his assistant they work out this

(30:29):
complicated scheme to launder the stolen cash. They planned to
create a false paper trail of W two tax forms
that show that the members of the High Screw are
earning this money as wages. Right, So the immigration lawyer
creates this byzantine paper trail, right, involving shell companies, front
companies that all have obscuring the ownership. And to effect
that pace, he creates a company of his own called

(30:50):
Extreme Entertainment. It was a party rental supply company, and
that meant they could buy cars and jet skis and
then be able to use them for themselves beause it's
part of Extreme Entertainment's holdings. So that's how they can
get around the pink Cadillac temptation.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Using this companys cover, the immigration lawyer is able to then,
you know, help them purchase their cars and their toys
and then also pay them through the W two's And
then also they decide, okay, we have more money we
need to get rid of. He's like, okay, well, what
do you want to do is real estate. It's a
great way to wash cash. So they go on a
spending spree, buying through their front companies real estate. Immigration
lawyer Matsumoto and the high screw. They work this money

(31:28):
laundering scheme for two years, flying below the radar because
there's all sorts of hanky stuff in LA. When it
comes to front, I.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Would have I would have gotten a small business loan
and bought a car wash. That's a good one, and
then you know no one ever goes there, or like
he's kind of just in the neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Go for free, Go for free. You always have a.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
Line, launder all the money, and then you get the
W two's out of the plus you've got the cover
of I had to take over.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
But that's that's kind of like a classic mafia and
movie mafia move, So I think the FBI might have
noticed that. But nobody does extreme entertainment to hide their robbery.
So it just seemed like some more hinky LA stuff.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
And like that's the era of like extreme extreme.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Everything, like Colgan with a black mustache. Now everything's going
so damn well. They plotted this perfect hest, they pulled
off the perfect hes. They'd washed their money perfectly for
two years. So again I asked, what the hell happened
that led to them getting the star treatment of ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
I don't trust the attorney's assistant.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Well, it's a good one. That's a good suspicion. Well,
to their credit, the LAPD and the FBI never gave
up on cracking this case, which would have been understandable
if they did sort of move on because they're really busy.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
But yeah, but that's a huge amount of.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Totally Also it's a huge embarrassment for them. Is one
of the most successful heists, so it's like, oh, top
of the list, but even eventually it turns into a
cold case. Right after two a couple of years, the
trouble for the FEDS was the Dunbar robbery, once again,
as I said, the most successful armored car heist in
America at the time, which meant the FBI still is like,
we can't ever really stop. So it wasn't really cold,
it's more like a warm case. Sure, it's over the years,

(32:57):
their chief suspect, Alan Pace, he gets interviewed, questioned by
the FBI multiple times. They just stopped by every so
often questioned him, see if they get him to break Nope, Yeah,
Now he's the obvious choice, is the possible insider, and
they just keep working him. But he never flinches in
the face of this pressure. He never breaks. He's always like,
why are you guys bothering me? Right? The trouble for
the FEDS was, even if the FBI thought he might

(33:18):
be the mastermind for this alleged insider job, he looked
hell of normal on paper. He had no criminal history.
He's from the solid middle class home. He's well remembered
by his former co workers. They're like, oh, man, he
used to pull pranks on us. That was great. He
sent to humor. They were like fun, flirt lord, pressure right,
big Diana fan. Everybody could relate to him. As far
as the FBI was concerned, he didn't fit the profile

(33:39):
of a big bad bank robbery if he was on
criminal minds. I'll put this in your terms. They say
his profile didn't fit the unsub they were looking for.

Speaker 5 (33:47):
I see, okay, now, okay, yes, now, now if you
can say that while dressed and sounding like Joe Montana, then.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
I would have nailed it. Then that's too big of
an ask. Sorry, there's only one Joe Mantanine. So it
was clearly obviously suspicious that the safety director of facility
got fired one day before, But they just could not
nail them, and they couldn't get the papers so they
could raid his home and find any evidence because you know,
they needed the DA to sign off or whatever, try
as they might looks like the FBI and just might
never solve this one just had this embarrassing stain on

(34:17):
their face forever. So now I ask you one last time,
how the hell did they end up on this show?

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Went wrong?

Speaker 2 (34:23):
But they're perfectly planned executed heist.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
I don't know, but I feel like it's going to
be a cautionary tale.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
It is. Hold that thought, Elizabeth, and after these messages,
I will tell you how the dunbar armored Heist Facility
heist crew finally ran out of Lady Luck's favor. Oh

(34:55):
we're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are so now that we've
done the deal and seeing that these cats slipped away
and leave no actionable clues. Ready to hear how the
heighst crew is perfect Luck finally ran out after the
completion of the successful heist. Right. Originally, each member of
the hight crew received one hundred thousand dollars from the robbery.
It was like walking around money. They all were getting

(35:15):
some money, just a little taste of success. Yeah, you know,
they don't spend all in one place.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Now.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
As for the rest of the cash, the mastermind Alan
paced the third He kept it under lock and key
at a secure storage facility in the South LA neighborhood
of Guardina. Right, So then he and his childhood friends,
he's ill. Yes, they lay low and they they said,
stretches for years. They lay low for years. Meanwhile, LAPD's
burglary team, FBI robbery squads, big time embarrassed. They just

(35:41):
are still working the case, still working the case. Dunbar
armored heist is like, it's this legendary thing. People are
talking about it. So they're embarrassed and they really want
to bust these guys. But howl. During the subsequent months
and years, nothing turns up, no tips, nobody flips on them,
No girlfriends get upset, no wives get you know, like,
oh you got a side piece, None of the like that. Right,
But the FBI they do follow up on their one

(36:03):
good lead, that broken tail light right left at the scene.
The FBI forensics teams they determined that the tail light
belonged to a U haul rental truck, so that was good.
The FBI visits all of the U haul rental centers
in the La Long beach area, the valley covering.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
Sometimes sometimes you gotta just do that shoe.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Love exactly, that's the deal.

Speaker 4 (36:23):
They look, get out there and shake some trees.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
They check every record they can for any truck rented
by an Allen Pace the third, who's on their only suspect. Sure,
since they're fairly certain it was inside job and it
was him, this fits their theory. Only trouble is the
U haul rental folks. At every place they go to,
they tell the FBI they have no records of an
Allen Pace the third renting a truck at that time
or anywhere near that time, or in fact ever, He's
never ever rented a U that's not his thing. He's like,

(36:48):
I got a friend with the truck. He has a
box truck. He lives in. So what's frustrating for the FBI, Right,
But they don't give up on Allen Pace the third
is their lead suspect. They just have like a picture
of them in their office throwing dark chat it right,
They started working round the clock surveillance of Pace, you know,
just all that. They just stay on him this whole time.
They watch him. They wait for him to slip up
to spend some money. He shouldn't be able to have

(37:10):
do some odd behavior anything. Yeah, this man, this cat,
he is cool as a cucumber and a bowl of
hot sauce. Shout out to Man May and MCA. Now,
Allen Pace doesn't spend money, No extravagant purchases, no trips,
He doesn't leave the LA area nothing. He doesn't even
have a bank account. I mean any money he spends
is basically cash. He doesn't do anything that confirms their suspicions.

(37:31):
Not only that, Elizabeth, do you want to know how
committed to the heist this dude is. He doesn't even
contact any of his childhood friends from the heist team
for the two years time he cuts off all contacts,
severs any links to the FBI could use to connect
any of them to each other. Right, super smart? Really
on though, before the FBI began their surveill It's likely
in the first day or two after the robbery, back

(37:51):
when they were still talking to each other, Like maybe I.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
Think did they all just go through the attorney?

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Is that they have friends of friends and stuff. They
have ways to get to each other, but they just
have no direct contact. You know, they can pass word
through the hood. So he starts, you know, I imagine
that they were counting the stolen cash and they noticed
that a good amount of the money had sequential serial numbers.
So they thought that this would be an imminently easy
way for us to get caught. So they needed to
make a plan for what to do with that cash.
He told his accomplices burn it, and they burned the money.

(38:20):
They just get rid of it. They burned millions of dollars.
It's all free money to them, so they're that disciplined.
They burned millions of dollars to make sure that they
wouldn't be attempted to spend it, and it had to
be drawed back to them. Good question. Have you ever
burned money?

Speaker 4 (38:32):
No, I'm not an idiot.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
This will probably not surprise you. I have. I have
burned money because I am an idiot. It wasn't stolen
bank deposits. It was my money. It's my own money. Well,
it just goes to show a stupid I am about money.
I literally have burned my own cash. Why, well, I'll
put it to you this way. I was to amuse
my buddy's style. He was he's kind of a square, right,
and so I was like, only I'll burn a dollar

(38:54):
and so I burned like a five dollar bill, and
then I burned a one dollar bill. So we could
see the difference between Lincoln in Washington's faces that they
burned right, and so he was amused by this. And
I took the the Washington and I laid it down
in this big glass ashtray, and the bill fully burned
up and it just left a perfect ash dollar bill.
It was so cool to look at. And then we
started poking it like into like George Washington's face gets

(39:14):
all distorted and treasure. I was in college right anyway,
So ever like playing pointalism on old George's face. Right,
the bill is this perfect ash version. The reason for
that is money isn't just paper. It has cotton fibers. Yeah,
rolling through it right.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
So yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Second question, you ever tried to burn clothing?

Speaker 4 (39:32):
I've accidentally burned clothes.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Okay, well, I once tried.

Speaker 5 (39:36):
I've had pants burned with a sage stick at a
at a winter solstice, and I wish it.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
I wish I'd never been there.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
I once got lost on a mountain. I took my
t shirt off, wrapped around a stick and tried to
make a torch because it was late at night and
all I had was matches, and torches don't burn because
of the cotton. They burned because you dip them in things.
And so I didn't burn. And she's up all my
matches and had no shirt to wear. Anyway, you need
a really big fire for sources of combustion, right, you

(40:07):
would gas, propane, something wax. Anyway, clothing's gonna burn. So
this is why, once again, dollar bills don't burn so easily. No,
if you're wondering, this is not how they got caught
burning the money. Burning the money, was that they go
on there like the smoke set up. No, Instead, they
gave up on burning the money because it was so difficult,
and they decided, we'll just go and spend the money
that is a serial numbers. Where can we spend money
that's sequential serial numbers and not get caught? Where is that? Elizabeth?

(40:31):
I think you can guess this one at casino. If
you said a Las Vegas, you're today's big winner. So
that's exactly what the pair of the heist team did.
They said, road trip Vegas, Baby Vegas, you're so money.
Now they can't they learned something else about crisp clean
brand new dollar bills. Slot machines do not like new money.
Oh really, yes, if you put a wad of crisp

(40:53):
new cash into a slot machine, the machine waft and jam. Oh,
this cand be trouble for people. But this is not
how they got caught. They took a quick detour to
Las Vegas laundromat to wash their money. After they literally
laundered their cash, they went back to the casinos hit it.

Speaker 7 (41:09):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
They they wrinkled it all up. Yeah, and they wet
it down and everything, and they hit up the slot.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
Machine doing your laundry and just.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Got cash in the machine just going around.

Speaker 5 (41:18):
Well, it's probably they probably put it in one of
those like lingerie.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
Well, they're just like being careful.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the LAPD and FBI are
still chasing after phantoms, and eventually, after the surveillance of
Allen Pace turns up Diddley and Jack Squatt and after
no new leads come in and the case has gone
super cold, like colder than a penguin's tail feathers. And
we've had two full years past at this point. Yeah,
wouldn't you know it? Lady luck wandered off to glow
blow on some other guy's dice, and well, brather than me.

(41:50):
Tell you about this, Elizabeth, I'd just like you to
close your eyes. I'd like you to picture it. It's
nineteen ninety nine and you are enjoying a quiet day
in the office of your new boss. You've just arrived
at work and have settled into your daily routine of

(42:11):
reading Michael Connolly detective novels until the phone works. At
the moment, you are recently hired new secretary for a
real estate speculator and in southern California investor. The work
is slow and undemanding, which you like. Dowers are good,
the pay is good, and that's really the reason you
took this job after you lost everything in a failed
dot com startup called Slot's Virtual Strip Club, which was

(42:32):
just actually a video feed of a couch that sometimes
featured a woman as she read from a book and
slowly seductively flipped the pages. Somehow that didn't fit into
the dot com boom. Oh well, but now you get
paid to read, so the least there's that. Anyway. Today
you're reading waiting on a call, but the phone's been silent. However,
there's suddenly a knock at the door. You pop up
to answer. It's like, oh exciting. A young gentleman steps

(42:53):
in and he says he has an appointment with your boss.
He tells you just stopping by to drop off a
deposit for a recent real estate purchase. Your boss is
out showing a property to a client, which is a lie.
Your boss's home with a severe hangover. The young man says,
I bet, so kind lead to deposit with you. You
sort of stare at him and then realize you haven't
said anything, so you say, oh, yes, sure. The young
man reaches into his backpack and he pulls out a

(43:15):
stack of cash, and he sets down stack after stack
of cash. The money looks to be fresh from the bank.
I'm talking. The bands are still on the stacks of
ten thousand dollars each. He drops ten stacks on your desk,
and then he asks for a receipt. You quickly locate
the receipt book. You fill out the appropriate paperwork. You
hand the young man his receipt. He smiles bet thanks.

(43:35):
You heads for the door. After he leaves, you stare
at the pile of money on your desk. One hundred grand.
It's so tempty you can just walk out of here.
But then, being the super observer that you are, you
notice the bands are not from a bank. They're from
a Dunbar armored car service. You remember reading about the
brazen robbery of the Dunbar facility a couple of years back.
You stare at it some more, and then you pick

(43:56):
up a stack of bills. You fan the bills. They
are crisp. Oh, the clean money smell. This money has
never been in circulation. You see that the bands have
dates on them. You check the date nineteen ninety seven.
That was the same year of the Dunbar heist. Then
it hits you, this stolen loot. You are over the moon.
Finally some excitement in this office. You pick up the phone,

(44:18):
call your boss at home. You quickly tell him what
just happened and your working theory. He says, hang up
the phone, call the LAPD. You do just that, but
you decided to call the Hollywood division on Wilcox, the
same division from the Michael Connolly series of Bosh Detective novels.
You asked to speak to robbery Homicide. It's all happening.
You're calling Bosh's division. Only Bosh isn't real, but you are.

(44:39):
But Dan, just like his other great detective Renee Ballard,
you have just solved a real life cold case.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
After the LAPD gets his call and they come out
to the real estate office to check the money bands,
the detectives are stoked. They immediately recognize They confirm this
is indeed money from the dunbar job two years back.

Speaker 4 (45:00):
I just they left.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
He left the bands on too lazy. Of all the things,
the LAPD calls in the FBI. The FEDS are super stoked.
Now they finally have an actionable lead on their cold case.
The Bureau springs into action. They have someone other than
Alan Pace the Third to run surveillance on Yeah, they
do just that. They watch Eugene Hill around the clock.

(45:24):
They peer into his bank records, they examine his phone records.
They go back to U haul and ask the truck
rental folks if they ever had a reservation for a
man named Eugene Hill. U haul folks check their records up.
What do you know out of the tens of thousands
of records they have on file out jumps a reservation
for a rental truck rented the day of the robbery.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
No gene.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
The bureau throws on their windbreakers with the big yellow
letters that read the FBI across their backs, and they
go roll over to surprise mister Hill. He's promptly located arrested, Elizabeth.
What do you think he did when the FBI showed
up his house, kicked in the door, threw him on
the floor or whatever, arrested them, pulled him into an
interrogation room, presented their evidence linking him to the Dunbar Heights.

(46:05):
Did he roll over on his trusted child friends.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
Cleared his throat and sang.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Like a bird, But I believe he did. He sat
there and sang every song he knew. The FBI offered
him a deal, that's how much he was singing, and
about as fast as he could. He said, I bet
I'd like to cooperate, so or some words to that effect.
The Hill said, I was there, I did that robbery,
and only that he was like and the mastermind was
my friend Allan Paced the third. The other guy's names
are Boom. The cat told the FBI everything he knew,

(46:33):
and next the FBI locates the other members of the
heist crew before they can be warned about this, arrest
them all, and just like that, years after their successful
heightst the Amateur Height crew finds themselves in federal court.
The first trial kicks off in two thousand and one.
It's pretty much an open end, shutcase. Each member of
the heist team is tried, convicted, and sentenced boom. Each

(46:53):
member of the crew gets seven and a half years
in federal lock up, except Alan Pace, the third. He
refuses to cooperate. He did not all the charges, wouldn't
confess to anything, say he knew anybody. That means the
judge threw the book at him and then chased it
with his gavel. He gave him twenty four years in
federal prison. He sent him up to FCI Stafford over
in Arizona, which is not a place you want to be,
and there he stayed until October of twenty twenty. He

(47:16):
did nineteen years behind bars, and based on the date,
I don't think he got off for good time. I
think he qualified for early release during the COVID years
since it was October twenty twenty, and I had an
uncle who was let out of federal prison around that
same time for that same reason. So I'm guessing that's
what it was. Now, if you speak with Alan Pace
a third today, he still denies he had anything to
do with the Dunbar heist. The most he's ever said
is that he must have been framed by one of

(47:38):
the guys who did it, one of his fellow co defendants. Right,
what was his reasoning for why they would frame him
for the job? Good question, Elizabeth.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Alan Pace said that he suspects it. Maybe I was
messing with his wife. Oh so there was that. Now
I left out two folks. So what about the immigration
lawyer and his assistant? Yeah, ka, the money launderers, Well,
don't worry. The FBI caught up with them too. David
Matsumoto got indicted on seventy one counts of money laundering
and one count of aiding in a bedding tried, convicted,

(48:07):
found guilty sentence for his part in the money laundering.
He got twenty seven months in federal prison, so two
years three months. Being that he was a lawyer. He
was also disbarred by the state of California. Ye his assistant,
Joaquin beIN, he had been at this point he'd become
an Arabian horse farm owner in the santi Andez Valley.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
I wonder where he is.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, right, all that goes boof. He's also tried, convicted,
sentence to thirty months in federal prison. I guess his
boss had a better lawyer. Some of the eighteen point
nine million dollars that the crew stole, Matsumoto had washed
a considerable amount. The FBI was only able to recover
about five million from the robbery. There remains an outstanding
fortune they could never find, according to US attorney Alejandro Majorcas. Unfortunately,

(48:47):
despite their extraordinary efforts, over ten million dollars is still
unaccounted for. Well, they burned some, they burned some, and
also Alan pay Saint talking, so I think he knows
where some of it is. Yeah, and it's likely the
f BET will never be able to fine or reclaim
that missing money. But I think they keep an eye
on him, waiting for him to buy a boat or
do something.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Sure, and there you go.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
So ends our tale of the all at the time
the largest cash robbery of an armored car company in
So what's our ridiculous takeaway here? Elizabeth?

Speaker 4 (49:14):
You know, we we have childhood friends, but we don't
have good judgment as children about like character and personality
and who might be fun to pal around with as
a kid doesn't always grow up to be Yes, So
you've got this one loose cannon who is too lazy
to take the bands off the money.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
And Alan pays. He basically picked them because he knew
it where their families were if he needed to get revenge.
But he never thought that one of them just get busted. Flip.
He had not thought about the unexpected, right right, Saren,
what's your I just told it you. Sorry, I skipped ahead.
I couldn't want you to ask, So there you go.
So I enjoyable. It worked for the whole. Well, let's

(49:59):
wash this all down with the talkback. What do you
say to love that you favor us with one? Oh
my god, super.

Speaker 8 (50:12):
Hell, I'm listening to your catalog again and again and again.
And the great Imposture episode of Very Brimen of July
twenty eighth and twenty twenty two. I'll google that guy
and it says on the pedias that he has forty children,

(50:34):
which he was definitely pretending to be somebody specially and
makes forty children with someone, So anyway, are you ridiculous?

Speaker 6 (50:46):
That's another ridiculous crime that is that is ridiculous ridiculous crime.
Yike yikes o man, Well, thank you for letting us
know it different and I hope they enjoyed it and
we're happy with it, and I hope it wasn't just like,
oh yeah, sorry, here's another one.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
I'm well as always. You can find us online a
Ridiculous Crime a social media that's mostly it's the Blue
Sky and I think Instagram at this point, I don't know.
Uh turns out let me know. They won't let me
near any of the passwords. Also, we have our account,
Ridiculous Crime pod on YouTube. As the kids say, like subscribe,
leave a comment also, if you do, we'll check them
and maybe we'll read your comment here, so please do

(51:21):
hit us up. Also, we have our website, ridiculous Crime
dot com. There's the talkbacks. Obviously, we download the app,
the iHeart app required a talkback, and maybe you'll hear
your voice here too. We do love a good talkback.
Emails if you'd like it Ridiculous Crime gmail dot com
and thanks for listening. We will catch you next crime.

(51:45):
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnette,
produced and edited by Bosha's other tech Guy, Our very
own mister Dave Kustin and starring Anelis Rutger as Juda.
Research is by Renee Ballard's lead volunteer investigator, Malissa Brown.
Our theme song is by the preferred Long Beach House
party band Thomas Lee.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
And Travis Dubb.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair
and makeup by Sparkle's Shops and Mister Andre. Executive producers
are Criminal Minds Superfan and Joe Montana. Cosplayers Ben Bolin.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
And Nol Brown.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
Ge Cry Say It One More Time, We Cry.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.