Millions of dollars — perhaps over a hundred million dollars — worth of gems and jewelry were stolen from a Brinks tractor-trailer in California.
The theft, which was only publicly acknowledged this week, is shocking the gem industry because of the huge amount of jewelry taken and because the thieves hit a security company with a sterling reputation.
The jewels were taken from a Brinks armored vehicle parked at a rest stop in Lebec, California, 80 miles north of Los Angeles. The trailer was carrying materials from a jewelry show in San Mateo to another exhibition in Pasadena when 20 large footlockers of valuable jewelry were stolen.