Brink’s Armored Car Drivers Fear Being Blamed for $100 Million Jewelry Heist: Report

During a high-stakes jewelry robbery last summer, the drivers of a Brink's truck were filled with fear about being blamed for the incident, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The truck, parked at a stop in California, was broken into by an unidentified group of assailants who made away with 20 bags of jewelry and gems, valued at a staggering $100 million.

"You know what worries me the most is they always want to blame the employee first," said driver Tandy Motley from a police body-camera transcript recorded on the night of the heist.

At the time of the 27-minute robbery, Motley was eating and her colleague, James Beaty, was reportedly sleeping. The drivers were transporting the expensive cargo from a jewelry show in San Mateo to Los Angeles, and they were at least somewhat aware of the value of their load. "Some of those obsidian rocks and opals are worth millions by themselves, just for a single stone," Beaty noted.

Investigators' suspicions were initially raised when the drivers claimed they had covered a distance of 298 miles in just over 2 hours, according to a Sheriff's report obtained by the Times. (For such a timeline, they would have needed to maintain a speed of 140 mph.) However, the drivers later amended their timeline during depositions, and these new estimates closely matched those of investigators.

Authorities continue their search for the suspects, believed to have utilized multiple vehicles to tail the drivers from the jewelry show to the rest stop.