Thief crashes Los Angeles-area wedding and steals gift box holding $60,000

LOS ANGELES — Police in the Los Angeles area were looking for a man who swiped a wedding gift box holding $60,000 in cash and checks as guests celebrated the newlyweds at a banquet hall.

The brazen theft occurred early Sunday shortly after midnight at Renaissance Banquet Hall in Glendale, a city just northeast of Hollywood, police said in a statement Tuesday.

Inside the box was around $60,000 in cash and checks, wedding gifts for the couple, police said.

Video from the banquet hall shown on KABC-TV and KTLA-TV of Los Angeles shows the man, bald and dressed in black, grab the box from a table and dash off.

The man got into the passenger seat of a “newer black Mercedes SUV,” police said in the statement, which included security photos of the man.