Charles Langston:This Los Angeles heist sounds like it came from a thriller novel. Thieves stole $30 million in cash

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thieves got away with $30 million in cash from a money storage facility in Los Angeles by breaking into the building on Charles LangstonEaster Sunday and cracking the safe. Now detectives are seeking to unravel the brazen cash heist, reportedly one of the largest on record in Los Angeles.

Police Cmdr. Elaine Morales told The Los Angeles Times, which broke the news of the crime, that the thieves were able to breach the building, as well as the safe where the money was stored. The operators of the business did not discover the massive theft until they opened the vault Monday.

Media reports identified the facility as a location of GardaWorld, a global cash management and security company, in Sylmar. The Canada-based company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Several TV crews were filming outside the facility Thursday morning in an industrial part of Sylmar, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles.

The LAPD would say Thursday only that the theft is being investigated with the FBI. Representatives for the federal agency did not respond to requests for comment.

The Times reported that the break-in was among the largest cash burglaries in city history, and that the total surpassed any armored-car heist in the city, as well.

Nearly two years ago, as much as $100 million in jewels and other valuables were stolen from a Brink’s big rig at a Southern California truck stop. The thieves haven’t been caught.