In the words of Frank Figliuzzi,Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland FBI office, " The group who pulled off this theft thought they'd have an early Christmas. Instead they found themselves holed up in a trailer in a secluded part of West Virginia."
That's all the farther Roger Lee Dillon and Nicole Gregory got, with Dillons' mother in tow.
"Obviously the first half of their plan worked pretty darn well.", said Figliuzzi, "After that it went downhill for them.}
That first half of the plan was ingeniously simple. Dillon allegedly used the computer codes he knew from working at A-T Systems to defeat the alarm system and clean out two vaults. $7.4 million in cash and checks was gone for hours before anyone else knew it.
Dillon and Boyd were nowhere to be found, and neither was Dillons mother, Sharon Lee Gregory. Police knew they had several vehicles, including a purple pickup truck. Some people spotting it last Friday was the key break the FBI needed.
According to Figliuzzi, "In the purple pickup truck found in Salem there were receipts that, after some investigation, led us to believe we should be looking in West Virginia." Beckley, to be exact. Those receipts were for supplies the couple bought there. After questioning merchants, agents found their way to a secluded trailer a little further south, in Pipestem. They spotted a GMC Safari Dillon and Boyd bought in Youngstown the night of the theft, and another car belonging to Gregory. About 4:30 Saturday morning, an FBI SWAT team rousted out the sleeping trio.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Edwards, "Mr. Dillon and Miss Boyd are to appear before a federal magistrate in Beckley on Wednesday for a probable cause hearing and removal hearing to the Northern District of Ohio." Agents are still auditing the cash and checks they found inside that trailer, and believe they have most, if not all, of what was stolen.
"We've had larger armored car heists, but not much larger. I can tell you it drew the attention of FBI headquarters very quickly, and the director of the FBI was briefed on it at headquarters.", Figliuzzi said.
It's not certain when Sharon Gregory go before a judge, but she'll likely be charged with abetting the transportation of stolen property. If convicted, what kind of penalties will she her son and Boyd face? That's hard to pin down right now, but the sheer size of the theft will increase the potential prison time.
