NC - $4 million in gold stolen in I-95 heist

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Dockins said:
I'd like to know if the "gold" was ever in the truck to begin with.
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Well polygraphs are mandatory in this line of work. All employees under the corporate umbrella of this company probably had to sign a waiver which stated this before getting hired. So i guess we will see.
 
Yoda said:
One of the actual calls here, and it just seems very weird. ...
This link has a longer version of the call.
http://www.wect.com/story/28238636/...teal-4-million-in-gold-from-broken-down-truck
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Yoda,
Weird is right about this situation.

Did you get any vibe from 911 caller or guard on ^ 11 1/2 min. recording?
Nice that he stopped to phone, but also appropriately cautious - staying in in his own car, not getting out. (Could h/bn/bogus setup, to lure motorist into stopping to help, then be robbed or carjacked.)
From what I could hear, guard spoke English as second language or just had pronounced accent.

911 caller used terms "delivery truck" and "Mack truck" and spec'ly said "not an armored truck" but MSM said "tractor trailer." I think of delivery truck as box truck for local deliveries like furniture, appliances. Which kind of truck? Box truck: no sleeping area or lav. TTs often have accommodations.

Overnight stop planned? Miami to Mass. = ~1475 mi., nearly 23 hours per Google data.

Weapons. I wonder if guard-drivers were armed.

The big puzzle to me: Had guard-drivers already phoned home-base/office, AAA, or wrecker service re mech. problems? If trailer-tractor/long-haul rigs, seems like they'd have CB radios & cellphones.
Seeks like they could have alerted other truckers - the moment white mini-van pulled up &
guys - at least one (of 3) presumably w guns or other weapons - approached them.
And/or seems like guard-drivers c/h/just called 911 once danger became apparent.
 
Weird is right about this situation.

Did you get any vibe from 911 caller or guard on ^ 11 1/2 min. recording?
Nice that he stopped to phone, but also appropriately cautious - staying in in his own car, not getting out.

I did get a weird vibe. The phrases he was using like "high value" "Mack truck" were unusual to me, and the fact that I kept waiting for him to say sir when he spoke to the dispatcher. Those three things made me think he was not from around the area. Also he spoke the bare minimum, answering the questions in as few words as possible. And he did not seem curious or observant. When the dispatcher asked him the color of the truck, he wasn't sure, and then thought it was white. Now, all those things were weird, but I don't think he had involvement because- he did not get out of his car, he pulled his car to the opposite side of the road, which I am assuming was to put distance between himself and the drivers, and I think he could have been less observant of details and not as vocal because he was keeping an eye on the drivers and a watch in case he was being set up to be robbed. JMO

(Could h/bn/bogus setup, to lure motorist into stopping to help, then be robbed or carjacked.)
From what I could hear, guard spoke English as second language or just had pronounced accent.

The guard did have a very thick foreign accent. I could not understand him.

911 caller used terms "delivery truck" and "Mack truck" and spec'ly said "not an armored truck" but MSM said "tractor trailer." I think of delivery truck as box truck for local deliveries like furniture, appliances. Which kind of truck? Box truck: no sleeping area or lav. TTs often have accommodations.

I noticed the caller kept saying Mack truck or moving truck. It was driving nuts because I was thinking does he moving truck like what you can rent from u haul? What size? Finally he said 18 wheeler. The dispatcher did ask if it was an armored truck and the caller said no.


Overnight stop planned? Miami to Mass. = ~1475 mi., nearly 23 hours per Google data.

Weapons. I wonder if guard-drivers were armed.
i read the guards had guns but they were of no use.

The big puzzle to me: Had guard-drivers already phoned home-base/office, AAA, or wrecker service re mech. problems? If trailer-tractor/long-haul rigs, seems like they'd have CB radios & cellphones.
Seeks like they could have alerted other truckers - the moment white mini-van pulled up &
guys - at least one (of 3) presumably w guns or other weapons - approached them.
And/or seems like guard-drivers c/h/just called 911 once danger became apparent.

Exactly!!! Why hadn't the drivers phoned home office right away? Why get out of the truck?

I read an article with much more detail, time they left, etc. I'll try to post it next.
 
4:00 am Sunday depart Miami
6:50 pm Sunday mm 114 NC I-95

Destination Attleboro, Massachusetts,
 
So far, investigators haven’t found evidence of anything wrong with the tractor-trailer. An inspector has checked out the truck, said Wanda Samuel, Wilson County Sheriff’s Office chief of staff.
Officials didn’t have any trouble removing it from the interstate either after the incident, officia
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http://www.wilsontimes.com/News/Feature/Story/35941678---QUESTIONS-SURFACE
 
Yoda said:
4:00 am Sunday depart Miami
6:50 pm Sunday mm 114 NC I-95
Destination Attleboro, Massachusetts,
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Yoda's link has pix of tractor-trailer, 18wheeler, which would (prob'ly?) make weight stops at state lines.
http://www.wbtw.com/story/28240287/4-million-in-gold-stolen-in-robbery-along-i-95-in-nc

FWIW, google info: Miami FL to Wilson NC = 810 mi, time = 11:59hrs, calc'ed at ~70mph.

Depart Miami, Sun at 4:00am, drive 70mph, arrive Wilson at 4:00pm, w no fuel/meal/lav stops.

How much time to add for ^stops, some slower travel, and for 3 (possible) weight-stops at state lines?
(FL to GA, GA to SC, SC to NC). 2hrs, 50 min? Or less?
If there were monkeyshines, how much time to allow for that, presumably unloading gold bars?

Would weigh-ins at state line stops give us any clues about where unloaded? mm114 or before?
Dropping ~207 pounds of gold bars vs adding & burning fuel?
("The Wilson Times reported that there was 275 pounds of gold stolen during the incident." from ^wbtw link.bbm)

Electronic trail?
- truck (GPS box) itself?
- guards' cellphone pings, etc.?
- meal & fuel purchases?
- RFID chips in gold bar containers?

And this is why students in math class need to pay attention to word problems. LOL.
 
Here's a link to the press conference held today: mediacdn.wral.com:1935/vods3/_definst_/mp4:amazons3/cbcnewmedia_wowza/2015-03-04_15264-576x324-15-768.mp4/playlist.m3u8

Anyone else kind of expecting Pierce Brosnan or Denzel Washington to appear?

Part of me kind of hopes this heist has a brilliant underlying plan rather than it being some guys with a half-baked attempt to outsmart law enforcement. Because this appears so obvious, the only question, IMO, being whether the company is in cahoots with the drivers/robbers.
 
But here's another question I have: what else was supposedly in the tractor trailer? Because ~280 pounds of gold doesn't take up that much space, not even close. So why drive a massive tractor trailer from FL to MA when it could have been done in a van? And they only had one lock guarding the gold?

It's sounding like an insurance scam to me, as others have noted previously.
 
It could be cartel related. I would check anybody that has shady affiliates.
 
Trucking companies transport valuable freight every day. A tractor trailer full of flat screen TVs is worth 4 million dollars. For the average criminal, it's certainly easier to unload hot TVs than gold. Either these people are high level criminals who know where to take gold, or this is an insurance scam and there never was any gold in that truck.
 
Boodles said:
....
Anyone else kind of expecting Pierce Brosnan or Denzel Washington to appear?...
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Listening to the 911 call recording, I thought - who does that sound like? Morgan Freeman?
No, I realize it was more like Denzel. LOL.
Both are easy to listen to, like the voice-overs Morgan Freeman did for some shows aired on PBS.

Boodles, thx for your link. Going to check out the presser.
 
The news just said the robbers" left $5M of silver on the truck, as well as some gold bars, so they must have started out with some real stuff.

The cab was secured by a Master lock!

"The robbers bound the men, broke a padlock on the back of the truck and stole about 275 pounds in gold bars, each weighing about 25 pounds. Woodard said the lock was "a Master Lock, one that you can purchase out of Lowe's," which might have been used as part of the transport company's security protocol."
Read more at http://www.wral.com/suspicion-surro...ation-continues/14490335/#93bWqH3ovEzQ0cPD.99
 
Dockins said:
http://www.turnto10.com/story/28261710/sheriff-gold-heist-may-have-been-inside-job. Sheriff states it may have been an inside job.
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New info from ^here, w below bbm sbm.

Did not pull off highway w mechanical prob, but carsick crew member.
"... one of them started to feel sick and said he smelled gas" per county sheriff Woodward.
"However, after deputies arrived, a mechanic found no problems with the truck, according to the sheriff."
"The guards got out of the tractor-trailer without their guns, according to the sheriff, who said it was a
company security violation to leave the truck without their weapons."
Carsick? I smell something besides gas, kinda fishy?

"The fact that the truck was robbed immediately upon pulling over at an unannounced stop is suspicious in and of itself," the warrant states, adding that the truck had no external markings indicating the cargo."
 Pix in wbtw link above shows no markings on trailer, but looks like truck door bears co. logo.
Maybe a lucky guess by the perps?

"The warrant said the suspects tried to steal the truck but could not get it started, indicating they did not know how to operate a commercial truck."
Fortunately, perps drove a cargo van, not a mini-van as stated in 911 call. Guns in hand.
"...three robbers drove up in a cargo van and confronted them at gunpoint..."
Ready for bigger payload than a mini-van, literally.

Safety minded robbers wanted to avert potential collisions by others:
"The thieves then set out orange traffic cones while they gathered up 275 pounds of gold bars...."

"Woodard said that the robbers cut a padlock, but there were no other security measures to stop them."
That is, aside from employer-issued guns guard-drivers left in the truck?

"[before] ...the victims, who spoke little English, could be thoroughly interviewed in Spanish."
Language barrier?

"The company has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest."
I thought I read elsewhere that reward was also for return of gold.

Looking forward to further developments.
 
http://www.wilsontimes.com/News/Fea...old-heist-appears-carefully-planned--executed

During the heist itself, the suspects reportedly told the victims they had been following them along the interstate and they had done this type of thing before, officials told The Wilson Times. Sheriff Calvin Woodard has been asked if it was clear that whoever pulled off the gold heist knew exactly what was in the tractor-trailer and that it was, in fact, targeted. Woodard said surveillance was a possibility.

The suspects reportedly tried to hijack the entire tractor-trailer, according to search warrants, but they didn’t appear to know how to get the truck started...

It’s unclear how far back along Interstate 95 investigators are seeking video and photo footage. Surveillance and traffic cameras, however, are situated at regular intervals along the major north-south corridor. Reviewing the footage could prove to be a long, tedious process. Camera quality appears to vary as well.
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okiegranny - thx for the update. From that post & link:

"Investigators obtained the search warrants to go through cell phones of the reported victims, including text messages, incoming and outgoing calls, photographs and GPS information."

Hoping that ^ provides some good leads.

That article describes two suspects, has two drawings of two, so this next sentence puzzles me:
"No witnesses actually saw the men as they were tied up by the suspects, Woodard said."

Also says there is a third suspect.

"Each bar of gold stolen weighed 25 to 27 pounds each, Woodard said. About 275 pounds of gold was taken.
There was $5 million in silver left in the truck, according to a search warrant."
That amt of silver would have been much bulkier and heavier to lift & handle than ~ same value in gold that was taken.

http://www.wilsontimes.com/News/Fea...old-heist-appears-carefully-planned--executed Mar 10
 
O/T: Just out of curiosity, how far is this from Robeson county? Just wondering. Couldn't help but think of Sara Graham when I saw I-95...I learned in her thread about the high crime in her area, as well as corruption.
 
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