Man wanted in '93 British armored car heist caught working as a cable guy in Missouri

This 1993 arrest photo shows "Fast" Eddie Maher (Sky News/Suffolk Police Handout)

A man wanted for questioning in a 1993 armored car heist in England was arrested Wednesday in Missouri, where he was leading a quiet life as a cable guy, authorities said.

“Fast” Eddie Maher, 56, is believed to have been part of the $1.5 million heist near a bank in the English village of Felixstowe. He had been on the lam until this week, when state and federal agencies acting on an anonymous tip swooped in on the apartment he shared with his wife in the city of Ozark, police said.

Maher is being held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and is awaiting extradition to the U.K. where he will be questioned by local authorities, a spokesman for the Suffolk Constabulary told FoxNews.com.

The heist case may have to wait: Maher's house and a storage locker he used contained an assortment of guns, which illegal aliens may not possess under federal law. Typically, someone in Maher's position could have to serve time on those charges before being turned over, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Missouri told FoxNews.com.

Maher admitted to federal agents that he has been working in the U.S. since 1998 and was using his brother’s name, Michael Maher -- who is currently living in England.

At the time of the heist, Maher was a security guard stationed inside the armored Securicor van driven by a colleague. The pair was supposed to make a delivery to a Lloyds Bank branch. When the colleague went into the bank, Maher and the van disappeared, according to reports. The van was later found abandoned.

Local authorities believe 50 bags of cash and coins worth $1.5 million were transferred into a stolen Toyota, driven to a nearby parking garage and moved again into a car that was later found abandoned and burned in the town of Essex, according to BBC News.

Officials at Suddenlink, where Maher worked as a cable technician, were stunned to learn Maher was a wanted man.

“With respect to the individual in question, we can tell you that, per standard operating procedure, a thorough background check was conducted before he was hired and we found no information to indicate there were any issues of any kind,” a SuddenLink spokesman told FoxNews.com in a written statement.

Maher’s wife and his two sons also claimed to be unaware of his alleged criminal past.

“I just don’t want people to see him in a bad light for something he did 20 years ago,” Maher’s son Lee King told local TV station KSPR. “There’s no way he’d ever do this by choice. He wouldn’t just do it to do it, he doesn’t commit crimes, and he’s the one that gets me out of trouble.”

King also told the ABC affiliate that the family moved around a lot and that Maher had always said it was for work.

He also found out, due to his father’s arrest, that he’s actually two years older than he thought and was actually born in the UK sometime before the truck heist.