Armored Truck Heist Baffles FBI / Thief got $2.3 million by cutting hole in top of moving vehicle

Having kept secret a daring -- and embarrassing -- Bay Area armored truck heist, the FBI conceded yesterday that it needs the public's help to catch whoever cut into the top of a truck and made off with $2.3 million in cash last March.

In a theft authorities said was worthy of James Bond, a suspect or suspects snatched 270 pounds of $20, $50 and $100 bills through a hole cut into the roof of a moving Loomis, Fargo & Co. tractor-trailer truck.

Loomis is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the thief or thieves.

The heist occurred sometime on the rainy night of March 24 after the truck left Sacramento at 7:30 p.m. and headed for a Loomis depot in San Francisco. Unlike the more common armored cars used by Loomis to make cash drops and pick-ups around the Bay Area, this truck was used for large shipments of money and only the front cab portion of the truck was armored.

The driver and two armed guards riding in the cab apparently never suspected anything was amiss during their two-hour trip. They made only one stop at an intersection in Sacramento and then headed onto westbound Interstate 80.

The only report of a suspect authorities have at this point is from a motorist who saw a man jump down from the top of the truck as it rolled slowly through the truck scales in Cordelia, said FBI spokesman George Grotz. The suspect was last seen running north through an open field toward Solano County Community College.

When the truck arrived in San Francisco at 9:40 p.m., workers discovered the hole cut in the roof and the trailer soaked with rain water. And after five weeks of investigation, involving nearly every police agency along Interstate 80, the FBI doesn't expect to make any arrests soon.

"We felt it best to run out any particular leads without the necessary glare of publicity," Grotz said. "That done, we now believe it's an appropriate time to seek the public's help.

"Certainly the circumstances of this particular case are extraordinary," he added.

Agents recovered unspecified evidence from the truck but are not saying how they think the highway robbery was accomplished. Grotz did say investigators think more than one person was involved, that the plot had been planned for some time and that a vehicle may have shadowed the truck as it left Sacramento.

Loomis has been a favorite target of thieves for the past several years. In March 1997, the company was stung by an $18 million heist in Florida. Six months later, a Loomis employee was charged with stealing nearly $15 million from a company warehouse in North Carolina.

In the Bay Area, police suspected another inside job was responsible last year for the theft of $800,000 from a Loomis armored van in South San Francisco.

Company officials were saying little yesterday about the March heist. Asked if the driver and two guards had been cleared of any involvement in the crime, Loomis spokesman John Toneatto said, "We haven't really ruled anybody out."

Toneatto would not comment on what changes the company plans to make in the wake of the robbery.

Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at (916) 481-9110.