$4.8m Gold Robbery May Have Been Inside Job

North Carolina officials say a multimillion-dollar robbery of gold bars from a truck in North Carolina may have been an inside job.

The heist last Sunday happened when two armed guards aboard the truck pulled over on a remote stretch of highway as one of them said he was feeling car sick, according to what they told police.

The guards told police they got out of the truck without their weapons.

They were immediately accosted by three armed men with Cuban accents who forced them onto the ground, tied their hands with duct tape and walked them into the woods.

Wilson County Sheriff Calvin Woodard Jr said the suspicion that the robbery might have been an inside job could not be ruled out.

But he added that the guards had been co-operative. "Right now, they're still considered victims," he said.

The robbers cut a lock on the back of the tractor-trailer and off-loaded 275 pounds of gold bars from barrels inside it, estimated to be worth $4.8m (£3.1m).

Nobody was hurt in the heist.

It is possible that the robbers were watching the armoured truck carrying the gold and knew it was transporting valuables, Sheriff Woodard said.

Authorities described one suspect as a heavy-set man around 40 wearing a red traffic vest and said he told the guards he was a police officer. Another was a man wearing a hooded jacket and all-black clothing, Mr Woodard said.

The victims could not offer a description of the third suspect.

The armoured vehicle from TransValue Inc, a Miami-based company that specialises in transporting valuables to banks, was traveling from Miami to Massachusetts.