Wells Fargo loses $3M in hold-up

Press, 22 December 1978, Page 5

Wells Fargo loses $3M in hold-up

NZA New York The smoothly professional gang that robbed an armoured truck in New York got away with just over SUS 3 million not SUSI million as originally stated, a source close to the investigation has said. The revised take makes the lunch-hour robbery one of the biggest cash hold-ups in United States history. It came only eight days after the record-setting theft of SUSS million in cash and SUSB6O,OOO in jewellery from a Lufthansa Airlines cargo building at Kennedy Airport.

The company refused to confirm the revised total. Mr William Cole, senior vicepresident of Wells Fargo Armed Service Corporation said it was company policy not to say how much had been lost in a robbery. But a; well-informed source who asked not to be identified told the Associated press that Wells Fargo had given law officials the new figure. Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents reinterviewed witnesses and checked fingerprints found in the truck. The truck had been to more than 10 banks in the borough of Staten Island for pick ups and was bound for the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan.

The robbers struck when two of the guards left the vehicle in front of- a delicatessen and went in to order sandwiches.