12 Times Tons Of Money Was Dumped In Public

Every day, at all kinds of stores and businesses, untold millions of dollars change hands. Literally — in spite of the proliferation of debit cards, credit cards, electronic payment services, and even bitcoin, there's still a lot of cash floating around. 

There's a lot of money in the U.S., more than $1 trillion worth of every American bill, and all of that money needs to be counted and sent to accounts. Many major world economies rely on the fairly low-tech solution of armored trucks to transport currency to banks, which operates under practices that date back to the Crusades. Those cars and trucks and SUVs, loaded with stacks and bags of cash and coinage, usually complete their journey without incident. But once in a while, disaster strikes. After all, vehicles are prone to breakdowns, mechanical errors, or even spontaneously unlocking doors. As a result, all that precious cargo gets loose, creating mad dashes for free cash. Here are 12 times over the last few decades that armored trucks couldn't guarantee safe transport and threw huge sums of money all over public roads.

On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, a driver navigated a Brink's Home Security truck down South Austin Boulevard in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Right at the beginning of the evening rush hour, the vehicle malfunctioned. "The backdoor opened by unknown means," read a report by the Oak Park Police Department. The secure truck was no longer secure, and three bags of American currency plopped right out and onto the road. 

When the driver realized what happened, they stopped the vehicle and called the police to report it and ask for assistance. When the Brink's employee returned to the scene, he claimed to have seen somewhere between 50 and 100 people taking money off of the street and then quickly running away or racing to their cars to drive off. Police arrived and surrounded the vehicle to prevent further losses.

Police sought out surveillance video from nearby homes, but ultimately no one was arrested for stealing money off the street. Brink's estimates about $300,000 was taken and wishes to leave the incident in the past. "In general, and in the interest of the safety of our employees and others who may be affected on matters concerning law enforcement, we do not comment and recommend that you approach the relevant law enforcement agencies for further background on the incident," a Brink's representative said in a statement to People.

On a Thursday morning in September 2023, an armored truck transporting cash experienced an issue. The only detail that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department would reveal to local media was that the door malfunctioned. That mechanical error caused the truck to abruptly die on Sunset Road, a main thoroughfare on the north side of Charlotte. The sudden stoppage apparently caused at least one of the back doors of the truck, licensed to and operated by GardaWorld Security, to burst open. That caused several large metal containers to slip out and topple onto the street.

Police and the driver estimate that about $100,000 in U.S. currency disappeared from the truck. Investigators didn't make any immediate arrests, nor could they determine just how many parties might be at fault — much of that cash may have simply blown away, carried off by the wind. "Some individuals did make off with some cash," spokesperson Mike Allinger of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department told The Charlotte Observer. In order to clean up the very lucrative debris spill, authorities had to close down all but one lane of a major Charlotte road.

In July 2023, a driver behind the wheel of a Loomis-branded security truck was traveling eastbound on Interstate 96 in Eaton County, Michigan. When he came upon a patch of backed-up traffic in Windsor Township, he wasn't able to slow down in time and instead aggressively braked. It was too late — the Loomis truck lightly struck another vehicle on the road, and the driver couldn't maintain control, running off the road and into an adjacent ditch.

All security measures keeping the doors locked apparently failed upon the moment of impact, sending the payload into the dirt and weeds. The Loomis truck was evidently only carrying pennies and other coins in small denominations. They were strewn everywhere, and Michigan State Police saw to cleaning up the mess. The law enforcement agency wouldn't tell the media how much, if any, of the coins had been snatched by witnesses, nor how long it took to clean up all that money.  Fortunately, the Loomis truck driver was treated for superficial injuries (it wasn't quite a car crash you won't believe people survived ).

At around 9 a.m. on Friday, November 19, 2021, the California Highway Patrol started fielding reports about a big mess of cash spread around a part of Interstate 5 in the city of Carlsbad. Apparently an armored truck operated by Sectran Security Inc., carrying a non-specifically large amount of U.S. currency, accidentally dumped part of its cargo onto the freeway when its doors opened in transit. Nearby drivers briefly left their cars on the side of the road to pick up the money. Many of those individuals took videos and photos of themselves and others holding stacks and wads of cash. 

The California Highway Patrol and the FBI, brought in to investigate the disappearance of the funds, issued a joint statement reminding people that it's illegal to swipe money that fell off of a truck. They also noted that the faces and license plate numbers of some of those who allegedly took money were in full view in their social media posts and in footage recorded by the armored truck driver. "The CHP would like to thank those motorists who have already returned money to their local CHP office and remind the public to do the right thing and return any money they found on the freeway," the agencies said in a joint statement (via NBC News).

In the early evening hours of July 9, 2019, a GardaWorld armored truck made its way down Interstate 285 in Dunwoody, a northern suburb of Atlanta. Then, without warning, one of its doors flung open, causing its cargo — nearly $200,000 in cash — to fly out onto the road. More than 15 other drivers saw the armored vehicle's accident, and they immediately pulled over, not to assist the driver but to snatch up the money. Remarkably, no other accidents occurred during the post-dump calamity.

By the time that the Dunwoody Police Department arrived to secure the area and put an end to the cash grab, just hundreds of dollars remained on the ground. GardaWorld reported losing as much as $175,000 in the incident. Motorist Randrell Lewis personally collected $2,000, but after he saw the cash spill on the news, he gave the money back to police. "I wanted to do what was right and make sure I wasn't doing anything illegal," Lewis told CNN. Within a day, six people had given back a total of $4,400.

At around 9 a.m. on May 2, 2018, a Brink's armored vehicle carefully slowed down and then stopped on the busy Interstate 70 freeway in Indianapolis. The driver pulled over as soon as possible after realizing that the double doors on the rear of the truck had become ajar. What's worse is that the accident had made a massive amount of cash come crashing out of the vehicle. Bags full of money were tossed across the road, some ripped open, and loose bills settled across four freeway lanes and onto the shoulder.

It took Indiana State Police a few moments to arrive but at least 90 minutes to secure the scene and work crowd control to rid the area of people who arrived to help themselves to all that loose road money. It was perhaps the most frenzied road-based event in the area outside of the storied Indianapolis 500. Authorities had to stop would-be thieves from scaling fences and crawling on the ground as they attempted to snag bills, but they could only do so much. An estimated $600,000 was set loose from the Brink's truck.

It was a Thursday morning rush hour in December 2018 when an armored truck from Brink's traveled along the busy Route 3 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Then the door failed to stay securely shut, throwing itself open and sending various denominations of money out into the air and onto the ground. "There were $100 bills, 20s, 50s," a bus rider who witnessed the accident while on her way to work reported to The New York Times. "It was in all different denominations, but there was a lot of it and it was scattered all about."

Immediately, many of the other drivers in the vicinity that could stop did. A few found abandoned money on the ground, took some, and left. Meanwhile, the Brink's driver attempted to run around the road and recover whatever he could, placing it into a white bag. The drivers not stuffing their pockets helped out, giving it to the driver or to police that arrived shortly after the episode. Still a few more witnesses were involved in two car accidents that resulted from the sudden sight of piles of cash on the road. "It was chaos," driver Jon Halapio told The New York Times. Authorities didn't disclose how much cash had leaked and what of that had disappeared, but they did note that $6,000 was collected and given back to the truck driver.

Brick Church Pike is a major channel for drivers navigating the north side of Nashville, so there were plenty of witnesses and potential for theft when an armored truck popped open on the roadway at about 7 a.m. one morning in April 2016. As the vehicle working for Loomis rolled out the street, the back doors unlatched and opened of their own accord, which sent multiple bags of money flying out and onto and across the road. "Money was all in the street. In the middle of the street. On the side of the street. On the ditch by the pole," witness Robert Maxwell told Nashville's NewsChannel 5. "Everywhere, money was everywhere!" A fair amount flew through the air and landed on windshields.

As the driver of the no-longer-secure vehicle pulled over to figure out next steps, which included summoning other Loomis employees to recover the lost currency, as many as dozens of motorists also stopped their cars so they could take the money and run. Representatives for Loomis decided against publicly disclosing just how much cash had been dumped onto Brick Church Pike, how much of that had been whisked away by drivers, and what went wrong on the truck to cause the whole episode to unfold as it did.

In South Providence, an area in the greater Providence, Rhode Island, area, sits Rhode Island Hospital. On the day of July 15, 2016, a Brink's armored truck, carrying several extra-large bags of currency and operated by a multi-person team, approached the medical facility. As it did so, the back door of the vehicle blew open without cause. That delivered three sacks of cash right onto the road.

Another car, trailing the Brink's van, immediately ran over two of the three bags, tearing them open and releasing thousands of dollars in cash that the wind took, whipped up into the air, and then brought down again. The crew working on the Brink's truck attempted to pull the money out of the air as it fell, but the workers were only able to recover a small percentage of the fugitive cash. They estimate that $20,500 went missing because of the accident. Brink's investigated the matter privately, both how the door came open and how the crew handled the situation.

The Maryland Transportation Authority Police, responsible for keeping order in major roadways throughout the state, would only tell the public that a significant amount of money made its way into the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel on the evening of July 15, 2015. Authorities believe an equipment error on a secure and fortified Brink's truck caused its doors to come open while inside of the tunnel, blowing out volumes of paper currency onto the road and into and around other vehicles. But seeing as how a tunnel is a confined space with a roof and walls, the money could only go so far. Brink's and authorities managed to pick up a lot of the dumped cash, while plenty got stuck in ventilation units above the road and storm drains below, making it inaccessible to citizens. As soon as they got word of the cash crash, MDTA officers closed off both sides of the tunnel, and it took eight hours to pick up all the money.

What remained on the road was seemingly up for grabs, as far as some motorists in the tunnel were concerned, as they ran out of their vehicles to take cash. "I think it's important that people realize there are cameras in the tunnel," MDTA's Sergeant Jonathan Green told CBS News. In conjunction with the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, a grace period of 48 hours was enacted — whoever took money out of the Harbor Tunnel could turn it in and face no legal ramifications.

The Overtown area of Miami is historically one of the most economically disadvantaged in the state of Florida. As of January 1997, homes in the area lacked running water and permanent floors, and so it was a stark juxtaposition when a Brink's money transport truck violently crashed into the area and spilled its contents. The vehicle was carrying around $3.7 million, and about 10% of that made its way into the possession of Overtown residents.

Later arrested and charged with reckless driving, the Brink's driver was speeding on an Interstate 95 on-ramp when he lost control and struck a guardrail, turning the car over completely. As a result of the accident, the back door opened, tossing a bag containing around $300,000 onto the road surface. Others also went flying, sending loose bills up into the air. Cash came to rest on bushes and in a nearby parking lot, while coins rolled and scattered on the road. There was so much money around that Florida Highway Patrol authorities had to use shovels to pick it all up while also struggling to cordon off the area as it was swarmed by money-seekers. Drivers and pedestrians took whatever money they could access. It caused a several-miles long traffic jam, and people who lived nearby emerged from their homes and filled their pockets, socks, and shirts. The total amount of money that disappeared? Right around $400,000.

On March 23, 1998, conditions in Toronto were such that the disappearance of a large sum of money seemed probable. It was already a windy day on the Gardiner Expressway, a primary channel in and out of the city — meaning a crowded one — when a Loomis Armored Car Service truck on its way to stock a bank in downtown Toronto suffered a severe rear-door malfunction. All at once, during a busy commute, three plastic bags holding a total of about $225,000 in Canadian paper money tumbled onto the Gardiner Expressway. Two of those bags remarkably didn't rip; they were quickly snatched up by drivers, and the contents of about $150,000 Canadian were taken away to parts unknown.

The third bag broke open upon impact, shooting cash into the air and all over the road and general area. "People were abandoning their cars in the middle of the road and hopping across the median to pick money," a Toronto Police spokesperson told UPI. Those scavenging for and running after cash stopped what they were doing only after the Loomis driver brandished a firearm and ordered them to leave the money alone. About $75,000 went missing, but by the next morning, about $5 had been returned.