The FBI found millions of dollars in a storage rental unit Thursday that had been stolen in Florida six months ago in the largest armored car heist in U.S. history.
Agents found the money in a mini-storage facility in Mountain Home. The town, in Henderson County in far western North Carolina, is about 15 miles south of Asheville, where the stolen armored car had been abandoned.More than $18.8 million was taken in the heist in Jacksonville, Fla. In a news release, the FBI in Charlotte would not say precisely how much was found, except to say it was in the millions of dollars. The statement also did not say what led them to the money.
A former driver for Loomis, Fargo and Co. armored car company, missing since the March 29 robbery, was arrested Aug. 30 as he crossed into the United States from Mexico on a bus headed for Houston. The suspect, Philip Noel Johnson, faces charges of kidnapping, money laundering and robbery.
Authorities said Johnson, 33, held two co-workers at gunpoint as he filled a van from floor to ceiling with bags of cash. One co-worker was later found handcuffed inside a closet at Johnson's Jacksonville home. The other was shackled to a tree in Asheville, where the abandoned van was found.
The previous record haul for an armored car heist was the $10.8 million taken in June 1990 in a robbery on an Armored Motor Service of America car in Rochester, N.Y.