LOS ANGELES – A former employee of an armored car company was sentenced to 24 years in prison Monday for masterminding the biggest cash armed robbery in U.S. history – an $18.9 million heist.
Allen Pace III, 32, was sentenced for the 1997 holdup at the Dunbar Armored Inc. depot in downtown Los Angeles. Less than $2 million of the money has been recovered.
A day before the holdup, Mr. Pace had been fired for undisclosed reasons.
According to prosecutors, a group of robbers in ski masks walked into the depot just after midnight, using a key that Mr. Pace had kept. He also drew a floor plan and provided radio headsets that allowed the robbers to talk to one another. They bound employees with duct tape and entered the vault area.
Prosecutors said Mr. Pace knew that workers often left the vault open while on break. The robbers grabbed bags of cash, plucked the videotapes from Dunbar’s security cameras and fled in a rented truck.
Mr. Pace was the last of six robbers to be sentenced in the case. One was sentenced to 171/2 years this year. The four others received sentences of seven to 10 years.
