$1 Million Eden Prairie Armored Car Robbery Still Unsolved 30 Years On
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A lot has changed in Eden Prairie over the last 30 years.
Developments have gone up, the population is growing, but one of the city's biggest cold cases remains unsolved.
"It's difficult to not be able to find out who did that. Somebody got away with a lot of money," said Eden Prairie Police Captain Bill Wyfells.
On April 18, 1989, Captain Wyfells was a new officer, on the force for just a year, when the call came in. At about 1 p.m., three men wearing masks and carrying machine guns stole $1 million from an armored truck outside First State Bank, now Bremer Bank, off Singletree Lane.
The guard was unloading the money, mostly cash, when it happened.
"One of the vehicles had boxed in the front so they couldn't get away and another came in from the back," Wyfells said.
Overpowering the guards and snapping up the cash, they put what appeared to be a bomb on the hood of the armored car. The men and the money were gone in less than a minute.
"I'm convinced that they would have taken a life if something didn't go as the way they planned," Wyfells said.
The bomb ended up being a fake, and the suspect's cars were later recovered. Investigators say the group was well orchestrated, and may have been connected to similar robbery that happened in Burnsville the next year in 1990.
Over the past few years, there have been no fresh leads. Since the crime happened three decades ago, there is no video evidence or cellphone tracking to go off of. Wyfells believes a major key to solving this crime will come from the public.
"Ultimately, someone knows something, whether it be the suspects involved or immediate family members or friends that they told sometime along the way," Wyfells said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked call Eden Prairie Police at 952-949-6200, or call the FBI at 763-569-8000.
