Police have identified the diminutive thief who lifted an 86-pound bucket holding $1.6 million in gold flakes off the back of an armored truck in New York City in September. The suspect, 53-year-old Julio Nivelo (among other aliases), is apparently hiding out in Los Angeles, and authorities have launched “Operation Lucky Charm” to track him down. (Seriously, according to what sources told DNAinfo.)
Here’s a video refresher of the heist, and the burglar’s rather arduous getaway:
Cops believe Nivelo, a convicted felon, is selling off some of the gold flakes to pay for his travel. (He was living in New Jersey at the time of the burglary, and then reportedly fled to Orlando, Florida, before heading west.) Police sources told DNAinfo his next move may be to Ecuador, his native country, even though he’s been deported back there four times between 1994 and 2008, and apparently kept returning.
A $100,000 reward is out for Nivelo, and the NYPD posted a few pictures in case he’s spotted while not lugging his 80-plus-pound pail. The NYPD has a sense of humor, and if you doubt that, please look very, very closely in the lefthand corner of the photo to the far right, which looks like it was taken in Washington Square Park (h/t New York Times):
It’s pretty blurry, but there’s Nivelo, at the end of a rainbow.
