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Masked ‘Police' Steal $100,000 From Fishtown Food Distribution Warehouse

Two armed men pretending to be police officers made off with $100,000 from a Philadelphia food distribution center and police believe the heist could be an inside job.

The whole theft at Kawa Foods along N Delaware Avenue in the city’s Fishtown neighborhood went down in just a matter of minutes.

Investigators said it began with a knock at the door around 2 a.m. The two men at the door identified themselves as police and wore police hats – one even carried a police badge.

"We can assure you these were not police officers," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.

Three workers, including a male and a female business owner, were inside at the time. The owners opened the door and that’s when the attack began.

The armed men -- wearing surgical gloves and surgical masks --  put guns to each owner’s head and demanded, “the money,” according to investigators.

"They threatened to shoot them if they did not cooperate," said Small.

The suspects appeared to know where that “money” was kept because they went about 25 feet into the safe room and stole two bags of cash worth around $100,000, investigators said.

One of the men held the owners at gunpoint while the other stole the cash, Small said.

The men quickly left, but not before trying to cover their tracks.

“They then tried to tear some of the recording video equipment off the wall, which they did -- threw it to the ground – then they exited through the same door that they entered,” said Small.

The men then jumped into a dark-colored mid-2000s Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV and drove off west on Susquehanna Avenue.

Police said no one at the food warehouse, which distributes emergency food supplies and specialty foods, was hurt.

Investigators said despite the attempts to destroy video evidence that some surveillance video survived. Police hope that video will help them track down the suspects.

Investigators worked on the assumption that the robbers knew what they were looking for.

""It's dark, it's very convoluted back here," said Small. "There's always a possibility that somebody knew where they were going and knew where the money was inside this property."

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