Fed Missing $2 Million in Coins Stored at Armored Car Company

As much as $2 million in coins owned by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is missing, and the FBI is investigating the suburban armored car company where the money was stored, an official said Wednesday.

The Fed suspended its dealings with the Public Armored Car Inc. of Bensenville last week after an audit revealed the shortage, agency spokeswoman Nancy Goodman said. Officials at Public Armored were not available for comment.

The exact amount of money missing was not released, but Goodman said it was substantial.

“The only thing we had on deposit there was coins and when we discovered the shortage, we removed the rest of our funds to our own vaults,” Goodman said. She added that the FBI was investigating.

The Chicago Tribune quoted sources it did not identify as saying the loss was about $2 million, but said the exact amount would not be known for several days.

Public Armored was serving as a depot for coins being transferred between banks and the Fed, Goodman said. The company began working with the agency in July.

The company was one of six storing coins and making coin deliveries for the Fed to banks and savings institutions in the Chicago area, Goodman said. Because insurance covers the loss, no financial institution will be affected by the shortage, she said, but they will have to make arrangements with other armored car companies.

“We inspected their (Public Armored’s) facility when we started with them and did a second on-site inspection in late December. That’s when we found the shortage,” Goodman said.

When a bank wants to make a deposit in coins to its account at the Fed, the coins are picked up by an armored company and taken to a warehouse and the agency is notified the transaction has been made, she said. When a bank needs coins, the Fed is notified and a delivery is made from the warehouse.