Sacto 9-1-1

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Sacramento police are investigating the possibility of an inside job in connection with the brazen nighttime robbery at the State Fair on Wednesday that netted the robbers about $100,000.

The incident occurred at about 10 p.m., as the fair was closing, when two men dressed in uniforms used by a food service company at the fair walked into an unguarded cash counting room and held up three employees.

The room is on an upper level of the grandstand that fronts the race track area at Cal Expo and contains all the cash from food products sold by Ovations Food Services, a State Fair contractor.

There were no security guards or police officers at the entrance to the room or the building, and no video surveillance of the area, State Fair General Manager Norb Bartosik said this morning.

Bartosik said nobody was injured in the heist, which involved the two men armed with handguns who loaded the cash into a plastic bag and who disappeared with the crowd leaving the fair for the night.

There are three public exits the robbers could have used to leave the fairgrounds, and Bartosik said Sacramento police are searching for suspects.

Police are investigating whether any Ovations workers didn't show up today, and are looking into how the robbers obtained the Ovations uniforms.

"That's part of the investigation that is going on," Bartosik said.

He added that 100 Cal Expo police officers were on duty Wednesday night, but none were in the Ovations area, and that it would have been up to Ovations to have requested security there.

"I can assure you that they will be taking a long hard look at it," Bartosik said of improving security in that area.

Attendance at the State Fair has exceeded expectations so far, and Bartosik said he didn't expect the robbery would affect that.

"This is a very safe place," Bartosik said. "This took place after the fair had closed."

He added that on a typical weekday night the fair could collect hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He didn't disclose the amount taken in the robbery, but said the fair would not lose money because insurance likely would cover the loss.

Ovations contracts with the State Fair to sell food to fairgoers throughout the Cal Expo complex, and uses the room in the Grandstand building to collect and count the money.

There is a vault inside the room and the money typically is removed from it in armored cars.

Authorities are looking into whether someone knew the routine or location used by Ovations, but Bartosik acknowledged that gaining entry to the building would have been relatively easy.

Employees have ID cards to gain access to the grandstand entrance. But those attending races could have entered through the race track side. The last race was at 5:30 p.m.

Bartosik said this is the first such incident in the history of the State Fair.

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.