Suspects In Huge Heist Spent Freely

After heisting millions in cash from an armored car, Michael Lutz didn’t flee to South America or the Caribbean - he spent $6,000 on a private flight to a Notre Dame football game, an FBI agent testified Wednesday.

The Fighting Irish lost to Michigan State 23-7 in September, and Lutz lost again Wednesday when a magistrate denied bail for him and former armored car guard Bobby O’Neal Negri.

Lutz, 23, and Negri, 30, are accused of robbing a Loomis, Fargo, and Co. armored car in Stroud on June 25, Negri’s birthday. The two allegedly looted the car of $2.7 million while another guard was buying breakfast at a McDonald’s, leaving Negri’s gun and a postcard that read: “Is Paris nice this time of year? Oui, Bye.”

Both men have pleaded innocent. If convicted, they could face up to 10 years in prison.

The FBI tracked them down on Halloween in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., hotel suite, where agents also found $400,000 in cash, collectible baseball cards and other items including 11 suitcases and two bicycles. Investigators found another $1.7 million in a Tallahassee storage unit.

“I don’t think they were being real conservative,” FBI agent Steve Gray said at Wednesday’s bail hearing.

In denying bail, though, U.S. Magistrate Bana Roberts sided with prosecutors in ruling that no conditions she could impose would prevent the men from fleeing.