The 2013 Union Depository Heist, also known as The Big One, was a bank robbery committed by the crew of Michael De Santa in September 2013. The robbery was aiming at well over $20 million in gold bricks defended by the US itself. It had never been hit before as of then. Over $200 million in gold bars were stolen without a gunshot, although there was a firefight with Merryweather in Skid Row as they loaded their loot.
Background[]
The Union Depository was a big score worth $200,000,000 in gold bricks, of course defended by the US government. A long time ago, in the 1990s, Lester Crest, Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips, and Brad Snider planned out a heist on the depository, which could get them killed or arrested, or even worse, chased across the country.
The robbery was never set in motion until 2013, with a new crew: Lester, Townley (changed to De Santa), Trevor, and Franklin Clinton. Lester and Trevor headed to Trevor's airfield in Blaine County to map out the heist as Michael and the others headed to East Los Angeles to look for the building. The front door was lightly guarded, so Michael and Franklin drove to Arcadius Center to get a view of the bank from the back. The back was also lightly guarded with only one reservist guarding it.
Lester and Trevor arrived at the airfield and took a helicopter to Boyle Heights, and they followed a convoy of two armored cars to the bank to see how they could get in. The two cars drove into the building through the back, and the helicopter flew over a huge construction hole to plan out the escape.
More time passed, and after days, Michael called Lester to move on the heist; his family had been attacked by Merryweather already, so he wanted to get it done before things got any hotter. They would either drive into the area with armored cars stolen from their crews or distract and take in the loot. The subtle option was chosen. Gustavo Mota and Patrick McReary were the gunmen, with Taliana Martinez as one driver and Eddie Toh as the other. Paige Harris would be the hacker. The heist was ready.
Harris looked for gauntlet muscle cars as Michael set about getting an LAPD van from the South Los Angeles police station. He climbed over the wall, knocked out the policeman on the phone, and took the van, driving it to the Vanilla Unicorn, where he parked it under the bridge. He took the Stingers and stashed them for the heist. Franklin also jacked three Gauntlets from a variety of locations and brought them to LA Customs to modify them. After the three cars were taken and hijacked, Lester phoned his men to meet him at the strip club.
Robbery[]
Subtle Approach[]
The team met up in Vanilla Unicorn, and they got changed into guard suits. Hacker Paige Harris got ready to help them from the club. The team headed to the tunnel before 8:00 AM, waiting for the two armored cars. They found the vans, so they hijacked them after using stinger mats to poke out the tires. They held hostages in the two cars, and they drove to the Union Depository. Michael, Trevor, and Casey (a hostage), dressed in uniforms, showed their IDs to the manager, and they were led into the bank from the parking lot. They headed up the elevator and were let into the vault, and took the gold carts to the vans, as the manager let them. They wheeled the carts out of the elevator and into the vans and moved the vans to Skid Row, but Franklin warned them that Merryweather knew that they were onto the UD and were looking for them. Paige tapped into the traffic light system in hopes of stalling the mercenaries and prevented the mercs from reaching the vans. The vans made it to a parking garage where they loaded the gold into their cars, and Michael bribed Casey with a gold bar. They were soon met by Merryweather and got into a gunfight. All of them were killed in a minutes-long battle, and they drove away in the four stashed Gauntlets. It was not long before the LAPD found out, and they were pursued. They drove into two vans each and made off.
Franklin drove Michael and Trevor to Michael's mansion, where he was met by Lester. They drove to the mansion, having made history as the highest-scoring heist men. Lester planned to put the metal on lockdown until he could melt it and sell it. Michael, Trevor, and Franklin got $18,775,000, Lester got $24 million, and the crew got $126 million.