A female Brinks employee was charged this week with theft related to a Christmas Eve caper in which someone walked out of the company’s Northwest Washington vault with a bag of cash containing $150,000, court documents said.
Chelsea Arnel Brown, 23, and a friend were caught speeding through Tennessee with a duffel bag full of money, one day after they were questioned by D.C police, arrest reports said. Brown, of District Heights, was charged in D.C. federal court Tuesday with bank larceny. A hearing to enter a plea is scheduled for May 9, according to court records.
On Christmas Eve, shortly before getting off work at the Brinks depository, 1710 17th Street NE, Brown shut the vault door without setting the time locks, spinning the locking dials or setting either of the two alarms, court documents said. She and a male co-worker met near her house and discussed how easy it would be to snatch the unsecured cash. That’s where they hatched their plan, documents said. Brown gave her co-worker the key and dropped him off at the building while she circled the block, police said. He came back out with $150,000 in cash. The co-worker took $30,000 which he intended to use to go to mechanic school, and she kept the remainder in plastic containers that she placed in a deep freezer in her home.
Brown diverted suspiscion by her bosses for several days by insisting the money had been sent to a Wachovia Bank, according to court records. When police started asking more questions, she fled with a friend. They were caught for speeding in Crossville, Tenn.
The troopers learned that a warrant for Brown’s arrested had gone out earlier that day. A search of the vehicle, found a duffel bag containing $110,000, police said.
