Police in North Carolina are still searching for the gold heist suspects who jacked $4.8 million worth of gold bars from a tractor-trailer over the weekend, and officials are now considering the possibility that the armed robbery was an inside job.
Wilson County Sheriff Calvin L. Woodard Jr. told reporters Wednesday that the investigation continues as officers try and determine why the unmarked tractor-trailer stopped on Interstate 95 and how exactly the gold heist suspects knew it was
carrying such a haul, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Two armed guards, who were eventually found bound and gagged in the woods after the robbery, are not considered suspects, Woodard said.
"Right now, they're still considered victims," he told a press conference. "But during this investigation we're investigating every angle."
However, the sheriff department's search warrant appeared to be suspicious of the
armed guards' story, according to The Wilson Times.
"There is suspicion at this time that this could be an inside job due to the circumstances of the robbery," Wilson County Sheriff's detective Josh Bissette wrote in a search warrant, The Times noted. "The fact that the truck was robbed immediately upon it pulling over at an unannounced stop is suspicious in and of itself."
"It is also suspicious because there are no markings on the side of the truck that would indicate the type of cargo contained therein," Bissette's warrant continued. "The suspects also went directly to the trailer and found the gold which was in unmarked 5-gallon buckets. It is not believed that this is a random act due to the nature and facts of this robbery."
WTVD-TV reported that one of the guards, working for TransValue Inc. of Miami, told authorities he was not feeling well after the tractor-trailer had stopped to get gas and asked the driver to stop on side of the interstate so he could vomit. The TV station stated the truck was originally reported as being broken down on the freeway.
The guards told authorities when they stopped, three men in a white van pulled behind them and robbed them of 275 pounds of gold bars from the tractor-trailer.
WTVD-TV reported that TransValue Inc. has issued a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or recovery of gold bars.