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Soldiers recover millions in soggy cash from New Orleans
ARNEWS ^ | Sep 27, 2005 | Capt. Kevin Hynes

Posted on 09/27/2005 4:54:31 PM PDT by SandRat

NEW ORLEANS (Army News Service, Sept. 26. 2005) — Soldiers of the Nebraska National Guard helped the U.S. Treasury Department rescue an estimated $50 to $100 million earlier this month from a flooded vault in New Orleans.

The soggy, stinking cash and coins were removed from a flooded Loomis, Fargo & Co. building in New Orleans by members of the National Guard Counter Drug Task Force who dubbed the mission “Ocean’s 13,” as a sequel to the recent heist movie.

The mission was top secret, said Spc. Tyler Miles, a member of the 134th Infantry Detachment (Long Range Surveillance) who participated.

Armored convoy rolls in secrecy

Few of the Guardsmen knew what they were being tasked to do until they were briefed just moments before departing, according to Miles and fellow Nebraska Soldier Sgt. Jonathan Panipinto. Their cell phones were confiscated before the briefing to ensure that what they were about to be told would be kept within their confines until after the mission had been carried out.

Panpinto said the Soldiers had some indications that something strange was up, though.

“People approached us and started asking questions about our (light armored vehicles.) Things like, ‘How much weight can these things carry?’ ‘Where is the balance point?’ things like that,” said Panipinto. “They didn’t identify themselves and we couldn’t get any straight answers. They just kept asking weird questions and taking measurements.”

“They just acted really strange,” he added.

The reason for the secrecy was simple. When New Orleans was flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, caught up in the fetid waters was the storage building for Loomis, Fargo and Co., a cash-handling company that handles armored car services. Bags upon bags of cash and coins had been left behind and needed to be recovered before other elements discovered their location.

Suspects seen casing armored car building

According to Lt. Col. Tom Brewer, commander of the multi-state Task Force LAV, the group was approached by U.S. Treasury officials to help secure a perimeter around the building and assist in hauling the cash away. Because of the nature of the mission, secrecy was paramount.

“Originally, the mission was supposed to take place on Sept. 11, but the water receded so much and so fast that people were noticed starting to case the building out,” said Miles. “They finally made the decision that they needed to move now.”

The facility, said Miles, was a non-descript brick building located slightly off of the interstate, surrounded by strands of rusting barbed wire, a few cameras and an inoperable electric gate.

“It was a building you’d never suspect,” said Panipinto. “It just looked like a truck depot.”

Although the water had receded significantly, the facility was still surrounded by the neck-deep toxic porridge of chemicals, oil, gasoline, sewage and other unknown elements. After arriving on scene, one team of Soldiers jumped into the water and broke open the gates and broke open the doors. A second group then hitched their LAVs to several surrounding armored cars and pulled them out of the way so that another LAV could back into the doorway.

Miles, who entered the building to assist with the movement, said the images he saw were simply amazing. “Papers were everywhere...receipt-like papers, all soaked,” said Miles. “It had a very distinct smell, like absolutely soft money. You know…money and paper.”

About four inches of foul-smelling black water still cover the floor, Miles said. Additional black water dripped from the ceilings and ran down the walls.

Breaching the vault

After entering the first room, a bank vault specialist quickly breached the inner vault door. Inside that approximately 20-foot by 20-foot room, the Guardsmen, U.S. Treasury officials and Loomis employees found multiple cages filled with stacks of dripping, film-covered bills.

Brewer described the scene to an Omaha World-Herald reporter as looking like “King Solomon’s mine – bags of (coins), money stacked everywhere.”

“Just seeing how much money was in there was astonishing,” Miles said.

After breeching the vault, the treasury and Loomis officials began to quickly load the fetid bricks of cash into plastic bags and then hauled the bags to the LAV. Because the cash had been submerged by the black water, which left a scummy black toxic film covering the bills, the cash was probably going to have to be destroyed.

Moving loot no easy chore

It took approximately three hours to completely empty the vault, said Miles. Because of the nature of the mission, the Soldiers were not allowed to touch any of the stacks of bills, he added.

“It was crazy chaotic,” said Miles, who helped move bricks of coins after the cash had been cleared out. “It took quite a while for them to get comfortable with me in the vault with them.”

“Once they did, I just pitched in and helped out,” he said.

The vault was extremely hot, he said, adding that humidity levels felt like “approximately 200 percent.”

“It felt like 130 degrees in there,” he said. “And you have all these guys moving bricks of money into plastic bags and then wheeling them out. It was kind of freaky because you got this eerie feeling…like all of a sudden out of nowhere you were going to get taken out. It was like being in a bad movie or something.”

“It was weird because you would look at these people and you just felt like you were moving money for the mafia,” he added.

After successfully emptying out the vault, the Guardsmen moved the treasure to Army Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks, better known at HEMTTs. Those trucks then hauled the bags to a highway were the cash was transferred to armored cars, which carried it out of New Orleans to an undisclosed location.

The total mission took about nine hours to complete.

Brewer told the Omaha World Herald that following the mission, many of the Soldiers started calling the mission, “Oceans 13” referring to the recent remake of the heist film “Oceans 11” and its sequel “Oceans 12.”

Miles said he took some extremely good memories with him from the mission, as well as a photo of him sitting on “one million dollars worth of quarters.”

“Every September 11th we’re going to remember moving all that money.”

(Editor’s note: Capt. Kevin Hynes serves with the Nebraska National Guard.)


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; US: Louisiana; US: Nebraska
KEYWORDS: cash; millions; new; orleans; recover; soggy; soldiers
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Gives a whole new meaning to Money Laundering doesn't it.
1 posted on 09/27/2005 4:54:31 PM PDT by SandRat
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To: SandRat

Or even, "Follow the money."


2 posted on 09/27/2005 4:58:56 PM PDT by abb (Because News Reporting is too important to be left to the Journalists.)
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To: SandRat

There are probably many more stories like this yet to be told.


3 posted on 09/27/2005 4:58:59 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: SandRat

You know, IF I were too be a looter, and risk being shot at; it surely wouldn't be a louse pair of Nikes.


4 posted on 09/27/2005 5:00:29 PM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, come Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: SandRat
Ok, reality check. For someone to classify something TOP SECRET, the event or operation has to pose "exceptionally grave damage" to the national security of the United States. In my experience, $100 million dollars hardly qualifies. That kind of money is spent every second in the DoD. Maybe the DoT needs some security education.
5 posted on 09/27/2005 5:01:44 PM PDT by opticks
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To: SandRat

6 posted on 09/27/2005 5:04:25 PM PDT by wardaddy (You're too good for him.)
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To: SandRat
Gives a whole new meaning to Money Laundering doesn't it.

Yes, it does. Filthy lucre.

... fetid bricks of cash... Because the cash had been submerged by the black water, which left a scummy black toxic film covering the bills, the cash was probably going to have to be destroyed.

7 posted on 09/27/2005 5:04:36 PM PDT by DumpsterDiver
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To: opticks
Ok, reality check. For someone to classify something TOP SECRET, the event or operation has to pose "exceptionally grave damage" to the national security of the United States. In my experience, $100 million dollars hardly qualifies. That kind of money is spent every second in the DoD. Maybe the DoT needs some security education. You have obviously not spent a lot of time in Naw Orlawns
8 posted on 09/27/2005 5:08:37 PM PDT by RVN Airplane Driver (Thanks America for not slapping us in the face again.)
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To: SandRat

My daughters boyfriend was in Iraq as part of the unit that caught Saddam. He got his picture in Time magazine guarding Saddams stack of cash. I'll have to send this to him.


9 posted on 09/27/2005 5:21:00 PM PDT by narby
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To: SandRat
Suddenly the missing 500 policemen reappeared...led by THESE three......


10 posted on 09/27/2005 5:21:30 PM PDT by bitt ('It is a good thing the Commander in Chief is tough as nails.' (FR))
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To: SandRat
The soggy, stinking cash and coins were removed from a flooded Loomis, Fargo & Co. building in New Orleans by members of the National Guard Counter Drug Task Force who dubbed the mission “Ocean’s 13,” as a sequel to the recent heist movie.

Are they recovering the Naggin and Blanco retirement fund?

11 posted on 09/27/2005 5:23:46 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: SandRat
“People approached us and started asking questions about our (light armored vehicles.) Things like, ‘How much weight can these things carry?’ ‘Where is the balance point?’ things like that,” said Panipinto. “They didn’t identify themselves and we couldn’t get any straight answers. They just kept asking weird questions and taking measurements.”

Obviously MSM reporters trying to tip off terrorist's!

12 posted on 09/27/2005 5:25:51 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: SandRat
Shades of US Troops finding billions of US currency when invading Iraq.
13 posted on 09/27/2005 5:30:20 PM PDT by the Deejay (THE LADY DEEJAY)
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To: SandRat
"After breeching the vault..."
It's a very good technique - opening safe vaults with a good kick in the posterior. Highly effective.
14 posted on 09/27/2005 5:30:35 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: the Deejay

15 posted on 09/27/2005 5:33:44 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: operation clinton cleanup
ok... lets try this one...


16 posted on 09/27/2005 5:35:57 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: operation clinton cleanup
nah, their legal defense fund! ;-)
17 posted on 09/27/2005 6:11:31 PM PDT by opticks
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To: SandRat
The soggy, stinking cash

Hell, I'll still take it and spend it.

18 posted on 09/27/2005 6:15:37 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: opticks
maybe there's more to the story than is being told? hmmmmmm....

Had to give the Kool-Aide crowd something to scream about just to have a Pop Corn Party watching them run around with their tin-foil anti-radiation hats on.

19 posted on 09/27/2005 6:19:18 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: SandRat
It was weird because you would look at these people and you just felt like you were moving money for the mafia,” he added.

Government treasury officials. Not much difference.

20 posted on 09/27/2005 6:23:08 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Federal creed: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. If it stops moving subsidize it)
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