From, "Gold Theft Plot Using Phony JPL Office Is Foiled, U.S.
Says" by Richard
Winton, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 2000
They had a guy in a white scientist's coat, phony requisition forms and a fake Jet Propulsion Laboratory office set up in east Pasadena.
But in the end, federal prosecutors said, it was a simple spelling mistake that tripped up the four men who allegedly perpetrated an elaborate scam to steal $1.6 million in gold parts from one of the world's largest manufacturers of precious metals.
"On a requisition order, the word 'sergeant' was spelled 'sargent,' " said Samantha Martin of the U.S. attorney's office in Boston. "That, along with the fact they wanted the shipment made by UPS and not the usual armored car, made . . . officials suspicious."