$4 million in gold stolen from truck in North Carolina

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MICHAEL BIESECKER

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Authorities in eastern North Carolina say armed robbers stole $4 million in gold from a truck traveling on Interstate 95 from Florida to Massachusetts.

The Wilson County Sheriff's Office said Monday the two security guards working for Transvalue Inc. of Miami reported pulling to the side of the interstate on Sunday evening after their vehicle began having mechanical problems.

They were then approached by three armed men driving a white van who ordered the guards to lie on the ground, tied their hands behind their backs and then marched them into nearby woods. Authorities say the male suspects then unloaded barrels filled with gold and made their getaway.

FULL short story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150302/us--gold_truck_robbery-3f984cb4ed.html

[Agschmid]

1. Yipes...

[Major Nikon]

2. They broke the golden rule!

[petronius]

3. Sounds a bit ... coincidental ... that they happened to have vehicle trouble and some

well-prepared armed robbers happened to be driving by. My inner amateur detective is smelling an inside job...

[DFW]

5. Gee, ya think?

[Marrah_G]

10. the guards might not have anything to do with it

Someone else might have messed with the truck. I am glad nothing happened to the guards.

[cstanleytech]

22. Yup though it certainly does sound like an inside job at the least

so they will probably be investigating who last did any maintenance on the vehicle because odds are if it was sabotaged that it was done then.

[petronius]

39. Very true, and you're right - the best part is no one was injured

But I'm putting my bet (in $20 gold coins) on it being someone in the company with legitimate access to the truck - whether from the driver's seat, the maintenance bay, or the parking lot...

[KeepItReal]

11. Yep. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in this investigation.

Where was the truck stored and who had access to it prior to the trip?

Did the robbers wear masks? If not, why did they leave live witnesses who could ID them?

How would they possibly know the timing, route and contents of the truck?


I've been watching too much "Luther".

[valerief]

24. You must be a conspiracy theorist for stating the obvious!

Yep, sounds like a well-executed plan.

[Kingofalldems]

4. Is that the shipment that came through Mayberry?

Barney Fife must have blabbed about it and the robbers had easy pickings.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

7. 139 lbs of gold would fit in a shoe box

very heavy stuff

[wolfie001]

9. I was going by the 1800 per ounce

I just checked it and it's 1250 or so. That adds more poundage. My bad.

[Orrex]

17. But how many barrels would they have to unload to fill a shoe box?

That's the part that threw me.

[happyslug]

19. A ton of gold is 14.122 inches by 14.122 inches by 14.122 inches.

Thus a normal shoe box is 12 inches by 6 inches x 6 inches or 432 Cubic Inches.

http://www.traditionaloven.com/metal/precious-metals/gold/convert-ton-short-sh-tn-to-cubic-metre-m3-gold.html

One ton of Gold equals .047 cubic meters which equals 2868.1 Cubic Inches or 1.66 cubic feet or just a little bigger then 14.1 inches tall by 14.1 inches wide by 14. 1 inches long.

Thus 7 shoe boxes is all you would need to haul ALL the gold in. You will need a TRUCK to haul those 7 shoe boxes for we are talking about 2000 pounds or 286 pounds per shoe box.

This is assuming pure 99.99% Gold (i.e. 24 caret). Gold Coins are 10% Copper so the sizes will be larger.

If the gold is less prue, such as from jewelry, you would need more space. On the other hand Gold is the easier metal to melt, 1,948°F (1,064°C) thus it is possible this was gold that have been melted and put into barrels for later processing. The Barrels may NOT be larger then a Shoe Box and could weigh over 300 pounds.

[Orrex]

21. Yeah, but...

Authorities say the male suspects then unloaded barrels filled with gold and made their getaway.

So my question remains: how many barrels does it take to fill a shoe box since that was the relative metric put forth in reply #7?

Never in my life have I heard of a barrel the size of a shoe box, unless we're talking about the barrel of a small cannon.

Is this some unique unit of volume for the transporting of gold? Even if that's the case, it's unthinkable to me that an article would use such a vague and confusing turn of phrase to describe the theft of several shoe box-sized units.

[happyslug]

29. Dry Barrels in the US is about 26 Gallons, a US Oil Barrel is 42 Gallons, Beer is 31 gallons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_%28unit%29

Thus barrels is a broad term, representing VOLUME more then WEIGHT. Thus how large is a "Barrel" often depends on what the Barrel is intended for. In this case sounds like just to hold gold of various quality and that all. The price would be set once the gold is reduced to 99.99% gold.

[Orrex]

30. Right. I know that. However...

You wrote:

The Barrels may NOT be larger then a Shoe Box and could weigh over 300 pounds.

Still not seeing how a barrel might not be larger than a shoe box, unless you were being facetious and I failed to realize it.

[Art_from_Ark]

40. The fineness depends on the type of gold coin

Old US gold coins (minted before 1934) are usually 90% gold, as are modern American gold commemorative coins.
US Gold Eagle bullion coins are 22K (91.6%) gold, as are Krugerrands.
US Buffalo bullion coins are 99.9% gold
Canadian, Australian and Austrian bullion coins are also 99.9% gold

[jwirr]

8. So is gold transported around the country often?

[cstanleytech]

23. Gold in varies amounts is transported all the time as it has many uses from electronics to jewelry.

[In_The_Wind]

12. I wonder when the truck was tampered with

or maybe there was an auto-kill switch.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Maybe the robbers have been watching too much Lesley Stahl.

Report: Cars are vulnerable to wireless hacking

[In_The_Wind]

16. Anything is possible.

[happyslug]

20. Or just sugar in the engine.

If you know the truck is leaving, dump some sugar in the gas tank or simply drill a hole in the gas tank. By the time the drivers figure out what has happened, the truck would have stalled and if followed by the robbers, taken over and the gold removed.

[cstanleytech]

25. Diluted pancake syrup mixed with some sort of oil to thin it would

probably work far better.

[AngryAmish]

35. directed microwaves

Nuke the electronic fuel injection.

[Orrex]

31. Maybe they were late on the payments and the bank pulled the plug.

[In_The_Wind]

32. Stranger things may have happened due to those kill-systems.

However, they got some 'splanin' to do.

[Orrex]

33. Me, I'm betting on some Maximum Overdrive-style alien activity

Seems the most logical explanation.

[In_The_Wind]

34. I think you've solved the crime.

(they needed our gold as a catalyst used in fuel)

[notadmblnd]

13. Couldn't possibly be an inside job. Gold transporting trucks

are robbed all the time.

[phantom power]

15. barrels?

?

[cstanleytech]

37. They dont convert all gold to bars.

Barrels make sense if its gold dust or coins or something of similar size.

[Munificence]

18. I am thinking

that it was probably scrap (jewelry) to be melted down since they mentioned "barrels"?

[valerief]

26. Stealing barrels of gold? Must be a Leprechaun Gang! nt

[Playinghardball]

27. Goldfinger did it...

[rock]

28. Didn't I see a documentary of this

On the Andy Griffith Show?

[KG]

36. Inside job

[rocktivity]

38. Was the truck armored?

Last edited Wed May 27, 2015, 11:55 PM - Edit history (1)

When I see an armored vehicle, I get away from it as quickly as possible, whether I'm walking or driving.

I don't fantasize about robbing armored vehicles, I fantasize about being caught in the crossfire of other people robbing an armored vehicle!


rocktivity

[rocktivity]

41. UPDATE: I've heard of "inside" jobs,

but this ridiculous:

...(A) seemingly ordinary episode of carsickness turned into a multimillion-dollar heist...

As soon as the guards stopped on the shoulder because one of them wasn't feeling well, three robbers drove up in a cargo van and confronted them at gunpoint, yelling "Policia!"...The thieves then set out orange traffic cones while they gathered up 275 pounds of gold bars worth $4.8 million and fled...

(A)uthorities said they were suspicious that the roadside robbery might have been an inside job...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141029721


rocktivity