French cash delivery man arrested after a van with €3m vanishes
- Published
File photo: The Loomis security van driver vanished during a delivery, along with the cash
Two cash delivery workers in France got a shock when they found their money-filled van had vanished - along with the third member of their team.
The van was soon found nearby but there was no sign of the 28-year-old driver or €3.4m (£3m) in cash.
He was eventually tracked down to a flat in Amiens, along with some of the missing money.
The suspect, named as Adrien Derbez, was arrested in the city on Tuesday evening.
According to news agency AFP, an estimated €1.5m is still missing.
The sudden vanishing act happened early on Monday morning. At about 06:00 (05:00 GMT), the team of three were making a routine cash delivery in their security van to a Western Union branch in Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris.
Two of them took the ordered amount of cash inside, leaving the third man to watch the vehicle.
"When they came back out, the van and the driver were gone," a police source told AFP.
A few blocks away, the white van from the Loomis cash transit company was discovered with its doors open and contents emptied - and no sign of the driver.
On Tuesday, police appealed for witnesses and released a photograph and description of Mr Derbez.
Mr Derbez had vanished, but was found in Amiens late the following day
Following a tip-off, police raided an apartment in Amiens that evening, French media report.
At around 17:00, officers allegedly found Mr Derbez trying to escape through a window, carrying several bags filled with banknotes, French broadcaster BFMTV said.
Three other people have been arrested since as part of the investigation. A large sum of money was also recovered - and was being counted to see how much, if any, was missing, the local prosecutor said.
The theft has similarities to the famous case of Toni Musulin, a Frenchman who stole some €11.6m (£10.2m) from the security van he was driving in 2009.
He vanished, along with the cash, in November that year, briefly becoming an internet superstar in France for his meticulously planned and bloodless heist.
However, most of the cash was found in a garage, and Musulin handed himself in to police in Monaco days later.
He spent four years in prison.
- Published4 January 2019
- Published9 February 2018
