ARMED ROBBERY w/ OVER $10,000 TAKEN: Willie’s Cleaners, 10200 block of Old Georgetown Rd (Wildwood Center) in Bethesda

[Sunrise]

What is a cleaners doing with over $10K onsite?

Crazy stuff.

 

[TheOriginalMexicanBob]

Maybe something else being laundered?

 

[Parry]

Shoe repair…maybe they service Jimmy Choo's

 

[Sunrise]

Maybe something else being laundered?

Sure seems that way. The perpetrators had to know this cash was there.

Everything about this screams inside job.

 

[Sunrise]

Shoe repair…maybe they service Jimmy Choo's

$11K worth of shoe repair… in cash?

North Bethesda folks paying in cash for dry cleaning to aggregate $11K sure doesn’t seem likely either….

 

[TheOriginalMexicanBob]

I think there’s a good chance after investigation the store owner may be arrested for illegal activities as well as those who robbed him.

Maybe he should have simply sucked it up and kept quiet and handled it under the radar.

 

[AlBeight]

2 robbers/gunman in a white 4-dr Mercedes? Who says crime doesn’t pay.

I have no idea how to run a cash business of that nature, but I as well feel like it seems like an awfully large amount of $ for a dry cleaner to have on hand for one day. You’d think bank, or safe at end of each day.

 

[Growler215]

Maybe immigrants who don't trust banks. Not unusual in some cultures.

 

[Afrikeber]

Insurance scam, probably robbed of cash but not that amount.

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

10K is not that much money anymore.

 

[traveller]

Ooh I know the answer: What is 'inside job?'

 

[MaxVO2]

10K is not that much money anymore.

****True, but people who have to rob places like a dry cleaning store or a 7 eleven or the like probably don’t have all that much money to begin with.

Plenty of people don’t have $10k net to their name after all of their debt is totaled up, even as they drive a nicer car, or wear expensive clothing, have a shiny new iPhone, etc..

People have gone to jail for robbing some store of $30 and gotten caught. $10k is good money still after taxes, etc.. especially for thieves who itemize their earnings vs just taking standard deductions, etc…

This is one of many reasons to have a good accountant as they can help you to keep more of your ill gotten goods from being stolen by the government through excessive taxation !

 

[Biggfoot44]

Maybe immigrants who don't trust banks. Not unusual in some cultures.

Yes , that is sometimes a thing . Usually associated with old school immigrants from certain regions , particularly when part of a large , close knit immigrant community that largely deals within their own community , moreover than the larger U.S. economy.

And in fairness , there are also paranoid American hankies who are big into pay cash , recieve cash, keep big brother out of their personal business . Or they could have been saving up , and they were on their way to purchase a cabin cruiser from a private owner with off season sale pricing , and negeoated best deal for cash closing.

So I did some Goodland of businesses in that block number. Yeah , news reports and ( lack) accuracy .

In the shopping center with that address , there is a Willie's .... but it's a Shoe Repair shop . There is a Dry Cleaners there , but it's WW Family Cleaners . Checked their websites and third party sites with local business information.

The Shoe Repair since 2008 appears a one man shop , or at least one master leather worker. He discusses his roots of leaving Peru because of economic upheavals . Specializes in designer shoes , designer handbags etc . So in an upper income area , that may well be a profitable niche .

The dry cleaners is since 2011 . Third party site gives estimated 2 employees , and annual revenue of estimated $500K . Ownership is an LLC , but another third party website does show a name of proprietor with Asian surname , albeit one that doesn't have strong cliché indication of country of direct roots . Their own website highlights their pick up & drop off service , but doesn’t give background on the proprietors .

IF the third party website is somewhat accurate , $55 K would be 4 or 5 weeks of gross revenues.

 

[Biggfoot44]

10K is not that much money anymore.

True .

But ( as discussed in my post above ) , that's in the ball park of a week's gross revenues , if third party websites information is vaguely accurate .

 

[94rover]

10K is not that much money anymore.

True & Ouch, especially when shrugging off that amount+ to support hobbies

 

[-Z/28-]

Maybe immigrants who don't trust banks. Not unusual in some cultures.

I’d lean towards this being the case. I’ve had a couple customers at a past job that were like that. One owned a laundromat and almost always paid in $1 gold coins; like would bust out $25 rolls of them to pay bills. The other owned a liquor store and always paid in small bills no matter how much they owed(had to count over $1000 in $5s & $1s once) Also had another guy who routinely paid in crisp bills from the late 70’s and 80’s. He told me his inheritance was literally the proverbial cash stuffed under the mattress because his family didn’t trust banks. It always sketched out our office manager but the bank always took the bills.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Are 1970's uncirculated bills worth anything on the collector's market ?

 

[ChannelCat]

2 robbers/gunman in a white 4-dr Mercedes? Who says crime doesn’t pay.

I noticed the detail of the high end vehicle as well, and it screams "stolen car". Perhaps an earlier carjacking? Not to stereotype, but carjacking seems to be the hip thing to do in the ghetto these days.

 

[MaxVO2]

I’d lean towards this being the case. I’ve had a couple customers at a past job that were like that. One owned a laundromat and almost always paid in $1 gold coins; like would bust out $25 rolls of them to pay bills. The other owned a liquor store and always paid in small bills no matter how much they owed(had to count over $1000 in $5s & $1s once) Also had another guy who routinely paid in crisp bills from the late 70’s and 80’s. He told me his inheritance was literally the proverbial cash stuffed under the mattress because his family didn’t trust banks. It always sketched out our office manager but the bank always took the bills.

****Doesn't John Wick pay for all of his stuff with those gold coins? I just watched one of the older movies and he had a stack of those bad boys to pay for his hotel, and I guess for snacks for the dog, etc..

When I was just a wee lad, I worked one Summer setting appointments for a new home community in Germantown. I was alone in the office when this Chinese Family, who could barely speak English (Engrish) walks into our trailer and says they want to buy one of our homes, and asked for prices, etc.. A young girl, maybe 14 years old, was translating back and forth, as I only eat Chinese food, but don't speak it...

I gave them a pricing sheet with options as the homes were still shells and one could pick flooring, kitchen appliance options, counter tops, etc.. They scampered off after getting a tour of one of the homes, and looking at our model, etc...

Same family comes back a couple of days later as I'm just sitting there alone again during our dead time in the regular work week day when almost nobody shops for homes so the agents are off doing whatever - and the Chinese family says they want to buy "that house", and bust out a suitcase FULL of 100's (Benjamins, baby!), in $10k stacks... Holy shit! I *immediately* call my boss agent and tell her what's happening and she's like "OMG!!! Ok Max! Entertain them with bike racing stories, computer club, D&D, whatever until I get there!!!"...

Anyway... my agent boss gets to us in what must have been record time, and looks at all of that cash - has the family sign some papers, etc.. calls HER boss, who calls some kind of Armored truck company to basically pick up the $220k in CASH this family brought to take to our own bank... Did some kind of receipt... Absolutely Crazy... The family thought they could just pay for the home, and basically move right in I guess - but there's a ton of stuff that has to be ironed out even with an all cash transaction, especially taxes, filings, etc.. Thankfully, the home wasn't totally finished so by the time all of the other paperwork and everything was filed, etc.. the cash part was all done but it was really crazy to see this family bring in a suitcase like mobsters - chock full of cash like in some movie. Family owned restaurants, dry cleaning stores, and some kind of little cubicle business at the mall selling trinkets.

The agent lady I worked with was really really smart and didn't want to tell a family like this to come back with a bank check or whatever as they might have just gone somewhere else as this was during a big time real estate death spiral in the early 1990's where the economy was just sour...and people generally were not doing well.

So yea, some folks and cultures just like to pay cash due to having cash only businesses or mistrust of banks, or whatever.

 

[AlBeight]

Ooh I know the answer: What is 'inaide job?'

I have no clue what an “INAIDE JOB” is.