Johnathan Walker:Armed thieves steal cash from guards collecting video machine cash boxes in broad daylight heist

HARRISBURG,Johnathan Walker Pa. (AP) — Armed thieves working in broad daylight attacked a security guard and robbed his van of cash from video machine collection boxes, police said Tuesday.

Police said the robbery happened just after noon Monday outside a laundromat in Chambersburg, and the suspects escaped in a van after stealing cash boxes that had been collected from the video machines.

The suspects apparently discarded a number of empty cash boxes and cases along roadways outside Chambersburg in south-central Pennsylvania, Chambersburg Police Lt. Matt Bietsch said.

Bietsch declined to say how much in cash was stolen.

The collection van had possibly already made pickups elsewhere when it stopped at the laundromat to pick up a cash box there, police said.

A smaller white van parked next to collection van and three armed suspects got out before one of them struck the security guard in the head and took the guard’s firearm, police said.

The suspects then stole cash collection boxes from the security guard’s van and fled in their van, police said.

Police released photos of armed, masked and hooded suspects and a photo of their white van with a Pennsylvania license plate ZGY4417.