Allen Pace III, an ex-employee of Dunbar depot, was the mastermind that planned the robbery at the Dunbar Armored facility.
The 32-year-old Allen, at the time of the robbery, was accompanied by five people. The 1997 robbery was planned by the mastermind for two years while working at the company.
He worked for Dunbar as a safety inspector who helped him get inside information regarding the floor plans, security camera locations, the building’s security features, how the daily operations work, and the armored delivery vehicles. The robbery took place without any complications. However, two years later, due to the mistakes of one of the associates, all six robbers were arrested.
The first episode, “the Dunbar Security Job,” of the Inside The Heist series features the details of the robbery that happened about 25 years ago.
Where Is Allen Pace Now?
Allen Pace is a free man now as he was released from prison on October 1, 2020. It has been two years, but his current whereabouts are a mystery.
The mastermind of the Dunbar Armored Robbery was sentenced to 24 years.
The heist was executed on September 12, 1997, a day before he was fired from the company because he was caught tampering with the vehicles. Pace, with five of his close childhood friends, robbed the Dubar Armored facility located in Los Angeles, California, and stole $18.9 million.
The robbers attended a neighborhood party to create a fake narrative regarding their alibi. The robbery was conducted on a Friday night because he knew the vaults would be opened as large amounts of cash were moved in and out of the building. As a former employee of the company, Pace still had his keys. They sneaked in and gagged the workers, then set off the alarms.
A rented U-Haul truck was used to load the bags of money they had stolen from the facility. Allen already knew which bags he was supposed to take and removed the footage of the tapes from the devices within 30 minutes.
With everything planned, the police did not have accurate information to pinpoint the robbers. After the heist, they returned to the party as if they had never left. The mastermind’s plan had been successful, and they bagged almost $19 million.
The Dunbar Armored Robbery Other Suspects That Were Caught
Allen Pace, the mastermind of the Dunbar Armored Robbery was accompanied by five of his childhood friends.
They were:
- Erik Damon Boyd from Beuna Park
- Freddie Lyn McCrary Jr. from Arleta
- Thomas Lee Jhonson from Las Vegas,
- Terry Wayne Brown Sr. from Los Angeles
- Eugene Lamar Hill Jr. from Bellflower
The main brain of the group, Allen Pace, was from Compton and executed the largest cash robbery that has ever occurred in the United States. There were other three people too, who helped the group in the laundering of the money.
The heist was conducted smoothly without any evidence. However, two years later, there was a slip-up that lead to the conviction of all six members of the group as well as the people who were involved in the laundering.
Pace, the main culprit, was sentenced to 24 years.
Erik Damon Boyd was sentenced to 17 years in prison because of previous charges he had and the use of a gun.
Whereas the other four robbers, Freddie, Thomas, Terry, and Eugene were sentenced to eight to ten years. Two out of three men were caught for money laundering and received a sentencing of 2.5 years.
All gang members have now been released after serving their designated sentences and are walking freely outside the prison.
The Dunbar Armored Robbery Mystery Details on “Inside the Heist”
For six months after the heist, the accomplices did not use the large sum of cash in case they get caught. They bought real estate, cars, and houses to get rid of the cash.
Eugene Hill was caught two years after the infamous robbery when he forgot to remove the original currency wrappers from a stack of cash while buying a new real estate. The broker got suspicious and called the police. The police soon arrested Hill and also caught the other members of the gang. The gang of robbers was arrested and sentenced.
All of the stolen $18.9 million from the Dunbar Armored Robbery has still not been recovered. Around $5 million was recovered by the FBI, IRS, and LAPD in the form of cars, houses, and other equivalents.
The rest of the money was spent while gambling in Las Vegas and some of the money was even burnt by the robbers to decrease suspicions as the bills could be traced. Eugene and one of the people who laundered the money reportedly wrote cheques of almost $1.5 million as investments for down payments to buy houses.
Even after tracing the money, more than $10 million is still not accounted for. It is said that the cash is hidden somewhere by the robbers but they won’t give up the location of the hidden money. The inspector believes that there are more people who have not been caught yet who know about the hidden money.
The robbery is one of the most famous in the country and there are many movies and series made based on the heist. The Dunbar Heist was released in an episode of Masterminds on July 16, 2003. It has been featured in season 5 as The Price of Greed in the show the FBI Files. There is also a movie in the works based on the robbery produced by Charm City Kings producer Caleeb Pinkett.
Inside the Heist, produced by Twenty Six 03 is a crime docuseries that will be of six episodes each of sixty minutes. The first episode of the series will be related to 1997 the Dunbar Armored Robbery. The show’s first episode titled the Dunbar Security Job will drop in November 2022, on Discovery+ in the UK.