FBI: Theft suspects planned on money from Black Friday

The Liberty police chief cited the suspects’ ‘stupidity’ for the capture.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A group accused of stealing $7 million in cash and checks from an armored car company knew the business would have an unusually large amount of money on hand because of the busy shopping weekend after Thanksgiving, the FBI said.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is huge nationally for retailers. It’s known as Black Friday, because many stores count on the higher sales to make sure they can operate “ivn the black,” or with a profit.

“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 area of West Virginia,v hiding from the law,” FBI Special Agent Frank Figliuzzi said Monday.

Roger Lee Dillon, 22, and his live-in girlfriend, Nicole N. Boyd, 24, and Dillon’s mother, Sharon Lee Gregory, 48, all of Lowell Avenue, Youngstown, were arrested by FBI agents around 4:30 a.m. Saturday at a trailer near Pipestem, W.Va., just east of Beckley.

FBI Special Agent Scott Wilson has said that agents recovered a large sum of money believed to have been taken in the theft at AT Systems International on Tibbetts-Wick Road near state Route 11 in Liberty. The theft of $7.4 million in cash and checks was discovered the day it happened, Nov. 26. Two AT Systems drivers discovered that the safes had been cleaned out.

Dillon, who had worked for AT Systems for about nine months, is charged with bank larceny, and Boyd and Gregory are charged with aiding and abetting, the FBI said.

None had any criminal record, and no weapons were found when they were arrested.

Dillon had security clearance and used a pass code to get access to areas where cash and checks were kept, Figliuzzi said.

Officials said the alarm system was deactivated, safes were opened and money to be delivered to banks was gone. Then the alarm system was reactivated. Most of the cash and checks was from retailers, though some was the property of banks.

Figliuzzi said the suspects used a van that had just been purchased and had its back seats removed to make space. Then it was driven from Northeast Ohio to a rented trailer home in Pipestem, where they unloaded the haul, he said.

Figliuzzi said the FBI believes almost all of the cash and checks have been recovered, but an audit is planned.

The three were interviewed when they were arrested, but Figliuzzi said he could not disclose what they said.

The three have hearings Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge R. Clarke VanDervort in Beckley. Both are being held in the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley. No bond has been set.

“Stupidity is one of the reasons they got caught. They left too many clues,” said Liberty Police Chief Tony Slifka, declining to offer specifics. “I don’t believe they had relatives [in West Virginia]. They were going to hide out for a while. My guess, they didn’t plan what to do after they got the money.”

Slifka estimated the $6.2 million in cash and $1.2 million in checks taken weighed about a ton.

“It was great work by the FBI,” Slifka said.

Last Thursday, police recovered the purple 1999 GMC pickup truck owned by Dillon. Lt. Donald Beeson of the Salem Police Department said the truck was recovered at a flower shop in Salem after a concerned citizen reported it as suspicious.

AT Systems’ customers are mostly retailers and financial institutions. Montreal-based Garda bought AT Systems in April.