Around NOK 56 million (around USD 9 million at the time) in both Norwegian and foreign currencies was stolen during the robbery of the NOKAS currency depot in Stavanger on April 5, 2004. That makes the robbery rank not only as Norway's largest, but among the biggest in Europe as well.
Main defendants Johnny Thendrup, age 40, and David Toska, 29, separately have told police that the getaway vehicles carrying the money stopped three times before they were parked in the Sørmarka area, south of Stavanger, and set on fire. Both Toska and Thendrup attributed the stops to motor trouble with one of the vehicles.
Aftenposten.no, however, believes that investigators have another theory: That the stops were made to transfer the money over to other courier vehicles bound for eastern Norway.
Traces of the money were found in a truck belonging to defendant William Pettersen in Drammen. It's believed the stash from the robbery was to be distributed among those taking part in it.
While Toska has confessed to his role in the heist, and pleaded guilty as charged on Monday, he's remained mum about what's become of his share of the money. Nor has any of the other defendants leaked information about the fate of the money.
Only NOK 5 million has been recovered. Some of the money was found hidden in Oslo, after crime technicians found traces of the window glass from the NOKAS complex on some of the bills.
