The top headline out of the Aqueduct Racetrack on Saturday night should have been Kentucky Derby prep race. But four hours after the dust had settled on a day of racing in Queens, two masked robbers made off with over $250,000 in cash.
Details of the Aqueduct Racetrack armed robbery
Police spoke to the New York Daily News about the incident, reporting that two security guards and an Aqueduct worker were moving between $260,000 and $270,000 from the first floor of the track to the second floor, as is standard procedure. But on this Saturday, March 7, at about 10:58 p.m., the three men moving the money were met by two armed robbers.
The armed robbers reportedly forced the two security guards and the worker into a room before stealing the cash that they were transferring and the victim’s cell phones. The gunmen wore surgical masks to protect their identity and were able to successfully escape the premises with the money. No one was injured during this heist.
Racetrack employees arrived to work on Sunday morning to a scene swarming with police officers. Some officers were searching the area for clues while others were reviewing security footage and interviewing witnesses. As of Sunday evening, the two men who performed the heist were still at large.
Was the Aqueduct robbery an inside job?
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one Aqueduct employee told the New York Post that he believed that the heist was an inside job. “It’s a joke,” the employee told the New York Post. “They waited for them upstairs on the catwalk. It happened on the catwalk. They knew when they were bringing down the money and [that the guards] didn’t have no guns. The guards in the vault area and the office, they have guns. But the guard escorting the money ain’t got no gun.”
“You tell me, how did they know exactly where they bring the money down? The exact route from upstairs to the vault downstairs? It had to be someone familiar with the procedure here,” the employee concluded. It is too early in the investigative process to know whether or not the gunmen were working on inside information or not, but this is certainly information that local authorities will take into consideration as they try to find the perpetrators of this crime.
Despite being the victim of an armed robbery on Saturday night, the Aqueduct Racetrack continued with its regularly scheduled race card on Sunday. The nine-race card was highlighted by the $125,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational Stakes in Race 3.
