Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Largest Heist in US History - The Philip Johnson story

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

This is the story of Philip Johnson, a man who robbed Loomis Fargo and pulled off the largest heist in US history

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And stream Paradise on Kulu and Kulu on Disney Plus. So this guy, his name's Phil, and Phil hates his job. He hates how he's treated, he hates how little they pay him, he hates the way his bosses talk to him. So one day he's like, screw this, I'm gonna rob this place. Now the place Phil works at, it isn't gonna be easy to rob. Cause old Phil, he doesn't like work at Chipotle. He works at Loomis Fargo, the company that drives the armored trucks to go

pick up money from banks and other businesses. So Phil's been working at Loomis for over 10, 10 years. And for five of those years, he's been planning this big heist where he's going to teach his bosses a lesson by stealing millions of dollars from their vault. And so the day comes and the timing is perfect. And Phil is ready to execute his plan. So there he is on his shift, driving the armored truck around, picking up deliveries. And when he's done, he drives back to the company warehouse. And by this point in the day, Phil has collected millions of dollars in money drops. Not to mention, there's even more money in the vault. So Phil starts unloading all of this collected money into the vault with two of his coworkers. This guy, Dan, and this other guy, James Brown. So they're all there unloading this money, and when his coworkers' backs are turned, boom. Phil pulls out his pew-poo and he points it at them and he forces them on the ground.

And they're all like, man, what the fuck, Phil? But whatever, Phil handcuffs them and puts shackles on them. And then he starts to take the cash out of the vault, and he loads it into an unmarked company van. Two hours later, he's loaded it. all the money he can, about a half ton worth of cash. And once the van is full of money, Phil forces Dan and James Brown into the back. Then he goes to the surveillance room and he finds all the security footage from that day. Footage of him committing this crime.

And he steals all the tapes, so there's no evidence of him doing it. Then he hops into the van with Dan and James Brown still handcuffed in the back, and he speeds away. Now, in this moment, Phil has made off with just around 19 million dollars in cash, which at the time of this happening is the largest heist in U.S. history. Now, with all of the places Phil could go with this money, he first decides to drive home to his house. And there he forces James Brown out of the van and into the house. And then he shoves him into a closet and he handcuffs him to a pipe and he just leaves him there. Then he

drives away. And poor Dan, he's still handcuffed in the back. But Phil drives as far away as he can all through the night, about 450 miles away. The next morning, he pulls up to a wooded area in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and he forces Dan to get out of the van and he marches him down the side of a hill. And there, he just handcuffs him to a tree. And then he drives away and he heads to a storage facility about an hour away. And there, he had rented a storage unit using a fake ID about four years ago. I told you he had been planning to do this for a long time. But once he's at the storage unit, he starts unloading all the money he stole into it. The next morning, Phil is long gone,

and he's taken a little bit of that money with him, and he's on a bus headed to Mexico where he plans to start his new life. While poor Dan stuck out in the woods, handcuffed to a tree. But after some maneuvering with a Swiss Army knife, he's able to escape, and he finds a park ranger, and then they call police who are able to rescue James Brown, who is still handcuffed in the closet in Phil's house.

Now, almost $19 million, that's a lot of $1 million, that's a lot of, A lot of money. In fact, it's so much money, that means the FBI has to come and take over the case. And so they put out information to law enforcement all over the country that they're looking for this guy, Phil. Meanwhile, Phil, he's just chilling in a suburb of Mexico City, trying to lay low. And there, he opens several bank accounts under fake names, and then he's able to make a bunch of trips back and forth from Mexico City to North Carolina to retrieve his stolen money from his storage unit little by little. And it sounds crazy, but it's seems like Phil's plan is actually working. Until five months go by. And Phil, he's at the U.S.-Mexico

border, he's trying to cross, because he's on a trip to pick up some of his stolen money from that storage unit. And while he's at the border, a customs agent starts asking him standard questions. Like, where are you traveling from? How long are you staying? Stuff like that. And Phil, for some reason, he starts to get a little attitude with her. Like mind your own business, lady, damn. So this customs agent, she pulls him aside and runs his ID. And what do you know? Boom. The name he's using comes back as having been flagged as an alias for the man wanted for stealing almost $19 million from his former employer. And so, kapow, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. I guess he refused to look at the camera, so they had to hold his head up. Anyway, so then the feds find his storage

unit with all the money in it. And in that unit, they also find the tapes with all the security footage on it showing him committing the crime. Womp, wamp, wamp. So then Phil goes to trial, he's found guilty, and he's sentenced to 25 years in prison. And he actually served 22 of them, and he got out a few years ago. So shout out to Jacksonville.