$575,000 in Stolen Cash Found in Hollywood : Crime: FBI is tipped off to loot from $651,000 armored car theft three years ago in Philadelphia by armored car guard.

A former armored-car guard who stole $651,000 from a Brooks truck in downtown Philadelphia three years ago directed authorities Thursday to a storage facility in Hollywood where they recovered $575,000 from a footlocker, the FBI said.

Edward Leigh Hunt Jr., 27, telephoned the Los Angeles FBI office from the U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia and said he had stashed the stolen money in a locker at Los Angeles Security Storage Inc., 6372 Santa Monica Blvd.

Hunt had insisted earlier that he had lost all the money gambling.

“He just had a change of heart,” FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said when asked why Hunt had volunteered the information.

Hunt walked away with two bulky canvas bags containing cash on Jan. 20, 1988, and disappeared, showing up in Southern California exactly two years later to surrender to the FBI in front of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce--an action that was witnessed by about 50 members of the media.

Hunt had written his hometown newspaper, the Wilmington (Del.) News, saying that the stolen money was gone, and he wanted to give up on the second anniversary of his theft.

“I stole the money because I thought I could quadruple it through gambling--and then I would give half to the company I stole it from,” Hunt wrote in a letter postmarked Dec. 20 in Inglewood.

“I used my gambling system, but I lost it all. I will turn myself in to the police on Jan. 20, 1990, at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. . . .

“I’m saying, Yes . . . I did it . . . I screwed up . . . I’m sorry about the crime and I beg forgiveness.”

The letter contained a photo of a young man in a bathing suit climbing out of a swimming pool.

Hunt wrote a second letter two days after the first was received. He reminded Wilmington News editors of his plan to give up.

As he promised, Hunt appeared at the Chamber of Commerce office shortly before noon on the appointed date. He was quickly arrested by FBI agents and hustled away.

Last July, Hunt was sentenced to eight years in prison for the theft, while still insisting that he had gambled away the money.