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Karen Scullin ReportingThe big burglary at the Department of Motor Vehicles last month turns out not to be so big after all. The two safes stolen from the D.M.V. in South Salt Lake were found last night and one of them still had ALL it's contents.
Police say the burglars simply backed up the ramp there and dumped the safes in an old warehouse. An auction company noticed the safes, but just thought they were junk until they took a closer look.
The crooks cracked the safe, but they didn't get much. In fact it was only about three thousand dollars.
Darin Sweeten, South Salt Lake Police Dept.: ”One of the safes had been cut open and it appears some of the cash and coinage that was in those safes was stolen."
They missed out on the contents inside the second safe -- thousands and thousands of dollars and personal checks. Police think the burglars simply ran out of time.
Darin Sweeten, South Salt Lake Police Dept: “It does appear by the scene that it probably was very time consuming to try to get in the first safe."
The safes were taken in a major heist at the D.M.V. in South Salt Lake. The burglars stole a truck, van and forklift from a nearby business, broke into the D.M.V., and crawled through the ceiling space to wheel the two fifteen hundred pound safes out and haul them away.
The drop off point was an abandoned warehouse. It's believed the crooks didn't touch the safes for several days, then went back to crack them open.
Darin Sweeten, South Salt Lake Police Dept: “The actual break-in to those safes did occur in that warehouse. It appears they drilled or sawed into one of those safes and that's how they gained access there at that warehouse."
The auction company that ended up with the safes originally thought they were just more pieces of junk to be auctioned off until they hired a locksmith to break open the second safe and found the checks made out to the D.M.V.
As far as suspects, police are still exploring all possibilities including the possible connection between the D.M.V. heist and three other recent bank burglaries.
