Armed thieves steal $700K from armored truck in Cheltenham, police say
Tuesday's robbery is the latest in a recent spate of armored truck heists in the region, according to police.
Two thieves armed with a rifle stole at least $700,000 from an armored truck making a delivery to a shopping center in Elkins Park, police said Tuesday.
Investigators believe the thefts are connected to a series of similar truck heists that have occurred in recent weeks in Northeast Philadelphia.
Tuesday’s robbery took place around 10:30 a.m., when a Brinks truck was parked outside the H Mart grocery store on Cheltenham Avenue near Old York Road, police said.
Two men, one armed with an AK-style rifle and the other a handgun, approached the driver and demanded the cash, according to Cheltenham Township police.
The driver was not injured, and the suspects fled in an Acura sedan.
The robbery bears similarities to a string of several others that targeted armored trucks in recent weeks in Philadelphia.
On July 14, a Brinks driver foiled a potential robbery by firing his gun at two armed men who approached him on the 8200 block of Castor Avenue, police said.
Two weeks before that, another Brinks truck was targeted at a shopping center on the 8000 block of Frankford Avenue by three gunmen, including one with an AR-style rifle. They took the driver’s gun and an unknown amount of money and fled in a silver 2022 Honda Accord.
Weeks earlier, two other men in a Nissan stole $1,000 and a gun from a Loomis truck driver outside an Aldi store on the 5200 block of Whitaker Avenue.
Another incident involving two gunmen in a Nissan occurred on June 26 around 3:15 p.m. on the 5200 block of Whitaker Avenue, police said. A Loomis armored truck driver was making a delivery at an Aldi store when he was approached by the men, police said. The driver’s gun and about $1,000 in cash were stolen.
Days before that, on June 21, a Brinks truck at a Home Depot store near Castor Avenue and Thompson Street was robbed by two men in ski masks, police said. The thieves fled in a black Hyundai.
The FBI has said it is assisting Philadelphia police in investigating the armored truck robberies in the city.