Authorities investigating after $300K worth of cash fell out of an armored truck in Oak Park
Authorities on Monday were trying to figure out how three bags of cash worth $300,000 fell out of a Brinks armored truck in Oak Park.
It happened just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, when a Brinks Home Security employee reported they were driving south on the 300 block of South Austin Boulevard. The back door of the truck somehow opened, and the bags of cash fell out, according to Oak Park police.
At the Jackson/Austin bus stop in Chicago, anyone standing there would've had a great view of people snatching mounds of free cash just across the street.
A Facebook video shows the aftermath of a Brinks truck parked on Jackson and Austin, with several officers flanking it.
The area where the bags fell became flush with money and people.
The Brinks driver reported to police that 50 to 100 men and women swooped in, pocketed cash, and took off.
An Oak Park mom who lives right by where it took place says she had no clue the free-for-all was happening right outside her door until officers knocked on her door looking for surveillance video.
"He said they ran right past my house," Nicole Phillips-Edwards said. "That they had ran down the street and they were trying to see if it had recorded. So I pulled out my camera and I'm showing them and I'm like, 'how far do I need to go back?' and he's like '10 minutes.' I'm like 'ten minutes?!' I was in the house 10 minutes."
She says there were no bystanders or crowd, and believes nobody knew what happened.
The case is still under investigation, and the search continues for anyone with information or who might want to turn some of that money in. According to Oak Park police, it's not a finder's keepers situation; it is theft, and anyone caught with cash that's not theirs could face jail time.
It is not the first free-for-all involving a Brinks truck.
Cash from one of their armored vehicles spewed across I-70 in Indianapolis in 2018.
'We had reports of people on the interstate, people on the side of the interstate, in the ditches, in the grassy on the side of the interstate as well," Indiana State Police Corporal Brock McCooe said.
Can cash taken in these scenarios be physically tracked?
Former FBI agent turned consultant Mike Driscoll, of FTI Consulting, says tacking loose cash can be difficult.
"There's ways to track payments, track wires, track digital payments, even when things get into the cryptocurrency world, it's possible to conduct tracing for those assets. In incident like this when you're talking about lose cash, that's very, very difficult. Law enforcement is going to have to rely on old fashioned investigative techniques. Looking at surveillance cameras, interviewing witnesses," he said.
Oak Park police say they are still investigating.
Meanwhile, Brinks did not comment on how the truck opened or whether the driver would face any disciplinary action.
Brinks did issue this statement: "In general, and in the interest of the safety of our employees and others who may be affected on matters concerning law enforcement, we do not comment and recommend that you approach the relevant law enforcement agencies for further background on the incident."
