Dunbar Armored robbery: History and Key Facts

On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $37.9 million in 2025). The robbery was orchestrated by Allen Pace III, of Compton, with childhood friends Erik Damon Boyd, of Buena Park, Eugene Lamar Hill Jr., of Bellflower, Freddie Lynn McCrary Jr., of Arleta, Terry Wayne Brown Sr., of Los Angeles, and Thomas Lee Johnson, of Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the largest cash robbery to have occurred in the United States until the Easter Sunday heist on March 31, 2024 which was estimated at over $20 million.

While the group left almost no evidence, Hill was implicated two years later when he accidentally gave a real estate broker a stack of banknotes that were still secured in their original currency straps; the broker contacted the police. Hill confessed, implicating the five other robbers, and three other men who had assisted in laundering the money. Pace was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2001; Boyd was sentenced to 17 years, and the other four robbers received sentences ranging from 8 to 10 years. Two of the men who assisted in money laundering were sentenced to 2.5 years.

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