March 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery
Philip Noel Johnson (born April 26, 1955)[1] was an armored car driver employed by Loomis Fargo & Company[2] in Jacksonville, Florida. He is notable for the theft of 18.8 million dollars, at the time the largest heist ever pulled off.
| Date | March 29, 1997 |
|---|---|
| Location | Jacksonville, Florida |
| Type | Bank robbery |
| Motive | Theft of $18.8 million |
| Target | Loomis Fargo & Company |
| Convicted | Philip Noel Johnson |
| Sentence | 25 years imprisonment |
Robbery
On March 29, 1997, Johnson pulled off what was then the largest cash heist in U.S. history,[2] taking $18.8 million ($29.2 million today) from the armored vehicle he was driving. Johnson overpowered two of his co-workers and left them handcuffed in different locations. He stashed most of the $18.8 million in a storage shed in Mountain Home, North Carolina, and moved to Mexico City.
On August 30, 1997, a U.S. Customs Agent at a border crossing from Mexico pulled a passenger from a bus bound for Houston, Texas, suspicious of his responses to her questions. Upon further investigation the agent found the identification offered by the passenger to be a known alias for Johnson, and he was arrested when multiple passports were found in his possession.
Independent of Johnson's apprehension, investigators were already following a trail of clues that led to the North Carolina storage shed on September 18, 1997. Approximately $18 million was recovered from the shed. Johnson was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Johnson was released from prison October 3, 2019. [3]
See also
References
- U.S. Public Records Index Vol 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
- "Suspect in $22 million armored-car heist arrested". CCN News. August 31, 1997. Archived from the original on December 20, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- https://www.bop.gov/mobile/find_inmate/byname.jsp#inmate_results
External links
- "F.B.I. Finds Armored Car Cash". The New York Times. Associated Press. September 19, 1997.
- "Man Seized at Texas Border In $22 Million Florida Theft". The New York Times. Associated Press. August 31, 1997.