From 1995 to 2005, three members of the Cabello family stole nearly $4 million and almost got away with it.
Archie Cabello stole thousands of dollars with his wife Marian Cabello in 1995, when he drove an armored truck delivering cash and coins to banks and businesses all over Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they lived. After the theft, Archie Cabello was fired, but no one was charged.
Once he got his son Vincent Cabello involved, Archie Cabello continued to pull heists. Vincent got a job guarding a vault, and the two stole thousands of dollars in a scheme in which Archie Cabello pretended to rob his son.
But the three made its biggest theft of all when Archie Cabello was somehow hired to work for another security company in Oregon. The father and son were able to steal $3 million in this robbery.
For years, police investigators, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service desperately worked to find the stolen money and the evidence needed to charge Archie Cabello and his family. But it wasn’t until Vincent Cabello came forward to police that authorities finally got their break.
Meet the three members of the Cabello family below and learn how they almost got away with stealing nearly $4 million.
Archie Cabello
Archie Cabello was the mastermind and leader behind his family’s crimes, according to prosecutors.
According to federal prosecutors, Archie committed a robbery with his brother in Detroit in the 1970s, then left town without giving his brother his cut of the money.
In 1995, Archie, a former Marine, worked as an armed courier and driver to support his wife and their two sons when the family was living in Milwaukee.
That year, when he was 48, Archie stole a bank bag of money while on the job. He threw the bag from the armored vehicle he was driving to his wife Marian Cabello, who drove away with a bag containing $157,839. Archie was questioned but not arrested. He was also fired.
Archie and his family moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1999. He got a job with Oregon Armed Services making pickups and deliveries for banks and government offices, including the U.S. Federal Reserve. With his son Vincent, Archie in 2005 stole nearly $3 million while on this job.
Archie controlled the flow of money into and out of his family as he attempted to make sure the family did not spend their stolen money lavishly. Police believed he was waiting for the statute of limitations on their crimes to run out so they wouldn’t be charged.
Archie used a fake name “Mike Alda,” as the official owner of a safe deposit box where the family kept its stolen money.
He allowed himself to splurge on a few luxuries, including bottles of wine and a cigar club that sent a box of cigars once a month in the mail. However, Archie had legitimate earnings of approximately $11,000 annually in the years following the Oregon robbery, but the family had spendings of more than a quarter million dollars on credit cards found by the FBI in their home.
After their son Vincent cooperated with police, Archie and Marian were arrested and jailed. While in jail, Archie instructed his other son to try to win the lottery in the hopes that they could win a jackpot and pay restitution, according to prosecutors.
At his trial, Archie acted as his own attorney, and his son Vincent took the witness stand to testify against his father.
Archie pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison in Texas. He is due to be released in July 2029.
Marian Cabello
Marian Cabello was Archie's wife.
Her fake name for the family’s safe deposit box was “Maria Martin.”
Because she cooperated with police, Marian was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Vincent Cabello
Vincent Cabello is one of Archie and Marian’s two sons. At age 23, he was an Army paratrooper stationed at Fort Bragg.
In 1996, Vincent returned home to his family in Wisconsin. He agreed to help his father with a plan to steal money together, apparently in a misguided effort to win his father’s affection, according to prosecutors.
He committed his first robbery with his father in 1998, after he had landed a job at the American Security Corporation guarding the night vault in the basement of a commercial building in Milwaukee.
For the crime, the father and son pretended that an unknown robber took the money as Vincent guarded the vault. Archie left Vincent at the scene with his hands and legs cuffed, making off with nearly $730,000 from the vault. Vincent was detained by authorities for questioning but revealed nothing.
Vincent and his father feuded after Vincent used some of the money to buy a flashy Hummer vehicle, paying in cash.
In 2012, Vincent and his lawyer cooperated with police and told the story of how he and his father came to steal millions of dollars from the 1990s to 2005.
He directed investigators to where they could find the keys to a safe deposit box in Washington, where a company provided anonymity for a fee, and where the family stashed the money they had stolen. Vincent’s fake name for the family’s safe deposit box was “Ron Alda.”
Vincent later testified at his father’s trial. For cooperating with police, his sentence was reduced, and he received a 15-month prison term.
