Robbers Use Slick Technique to Steal 2-Ton DMV Safe

Slippery thieves slathered a 30-foot trail of grease and oil on the floor of the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Canoga Park and slid out the door with a two-ton safe filled with $10,000 in cash, police said Wednesday.

“It’s no small trick,” State Police Capt. Bob Donnalley said of last weekend’s heist, which forced a one-day closure of the DMV office at 20725 Sherman Way. “A 4,000-pound safe should not go anywhere.”

But it did. The slick method used by the burglars intrigued investigators, who said they never before saw grease being used to swipe a safe. No other moving equipment appeared to have been used to steal the four-foot-square metal safe.

“It’s a very unique method,” Donnalley said. “It’s an old gag--greasing the skids. In this case, they really did.”

So far, the crooks have given police the slip.

Only the safe, which also contained accounting records and about $25,000 in checks made out to the DMV, appeared to be missing. Left behind were registration stickers, expensive equipment used to make driver’s licenses and a huge, gooey mess.

The office was closed Tuesday while workers cleaned up grease that covered the floor and smudged the walls. Paperwork and registration stickers apparently knocked into the goo by the burglars were cleaned as thoroughly as possible.

“It was so dirty,” operations officer Luella Traub said. “There are a lot of burglaries, but this is the messiest I have ever seen.”

Officials would not speculate on whether the thieves were current or former employees.

The thieves made off with the safe, stored in a back office, between 2 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Tuesday. Police suspect that the burglars first disconnected the alarm system, cutting phone and computer lines in the process, and forced their way through a rear metal door.

Once inside, the burglars covered the path between the safe and the door with a mixture of heavy industrial grease and oil they had brought with them. After sliding the unsecured safe to the door, Donnalley said, the thieves probably loaded it into a vehicle and slipped into the night.