During stunning L.A. heist, neighbor heard odd noises

Aerial view of the GardaWorld building in Sylmar.

April 5, 2024 10:28 AM PT

It was a strange mechanical sound — a kind of rhythmic whirring — and it wouldn’t quit.

At the time, the resident of Tahitian Mobile Home Park in Sylmar didn’t think much of the weekend racket, which seemed to be coming from a neighboring industrial building and may have lasted two hours or more, she said.

Now, though, after learning that the warehouse behind the park was breached by thieves who stole as much as $30 million in a Sunday night heist, the woman has fixated on that odd noise — and what it may have been.

“That sound is embedded in my head,” said the woman, who requested her name not be published over privacy concerns. “My mind is still going crazy over what happened. I know it’s just money, but they’re invading your space.”

The elaborate Easter heist is believed to be among the biggest in L.A. history. It occurred at a Roxford Street facility where cash from businesses across the Southland is handled and stored by GardaWorld, a security services company. In a display of uncommon sophistication, thieves breached the single-story building via its roof to gain access to its vault — and avoided the property’s alarm system, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation of the theft.

Montreal-based GardaWorld did not learn of the crime until opening the vault on Monday. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

George Alhosry, who owns the Kwik Market & Deli on Roxford, said the store’s Wi-Fi was down much of Sunday. “We couldn’t access the Lotto,” he said, adding that mobile phone calls failed in the area, too.

It’s unclear whether that was connected to the heist. But Wi-Fi jammers have become a common tool of theft gangs during their burglaries of homes in Southern California because they knock out many security cameras that could capture video or stills of them or their vehicles.

Authorities have so far said little about the mysterious heist, which is being investigated by the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department. The Times previously reported that there was also an effort by the thieves to breach the side of the GardaWorld building. It’s unclear whether this was part of their attempts to enter or exit the warehouse. A KABC-TV News video aired Wednesday night showed a large cut on the side of the structure that was covered by a piece of plywood. By Thursday afternoon, the wall appeared to be patched up.

The crime has rattled Sylmar, where residents and merchants near the GardaWorld building told The Times they were shocked that such an audacious heist occurred in their midst.

Yet some locals were more focused on street crime than a high-dollar heist that appeared to bear the hallmarks of a silver screen spectacle. Take Victor Benitez, who said that the particulars of the burglary seemed to be plucked from a 1980s action movie. Standing near a shabby section of San Fernando Road, where shaggy palm trees wore their browning fronds like beards, he lamented that prostitution and violent crime are problems in the area.

“Five weeks ago, the police brought a dog in, they searched the area for an active shooter — but it wasn’t in the news,” said Benitez as a train rumbled by on adjacent tracks. “I would not recommend living here.”

Damage to a wall at the GardaWorld building in Sylmar appeared to be repaired on Thursday.

Sandi Gomez, a resident of the mobile home park whose property offers a view of the GardaWorld building, said she didn’t notice anything amiss over last weekend. She said she told FBI agents the same thing when they visited her Monday afternoon and asked if she “saw or heard anything suspicious around 4 a.m.” Sunday.

Gomez was asleep at the time.

The FBI agents also wanted to know about a security camera mounted on a portion of her home that faces the GardaWorld property. Gomez said she explained to the agents that the camera only offers a live view and doesn’t record footage. The next day, she said, LAPD investigators walked the area.

The mobile home park is a dense neighborhood of tightly spaced trailers lining numbered avenues. On Thursday afternoon, stray cats stalked a weedy patch at the back of the property, which is separated from the GardaWorld building by fences, unkempt foliage and a line of trees.

A representative of the mobile home park declined to comment.

The burgled facility, hemmed in on one side by the active train tracks, is owned by World Oil Corp. GardaWorld has been the sole tenant there since the warehouse was built in 2000, according to real estate data firm CoStar.

World Oil did not respond to requests for comment.

The GardaWorld episode comes nearly two years after another high-profile Southern California heist: the multimillion-dollar theft of jewelry from a Brink’s big rig at a Grapevine truck stop. There’s debate about the value of those pilfered goods, with estimates ranging from less than $10 million to more than $100 million. The July 2022 crime remains unsolved.

Rooftop burglaries have been extremely rare in Los Angeles — but there have been some notable ones in recent years. Last summer, burglars broke into Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice via a hole they cut in its roof. The thieves went on to steal about 800 bottles worth about $600,000 — making it one of the biggest wine crimes in California history.

That incident occurred at the start of the Fourth of July weekend, similar to the Easter thievery at the GardaWorld property. Scott Andrew Selby, co-author of “Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History,” said burglars sometimes strike on and around major holidays.

“This crew, like others, picked a holiday with fewest eyes paying attention,” he said.

Times staff writers Ruben Vives and Roger Vincent contributed to this report.