It was a caper only Hollywood and a group of savvy burglars could come up with.

A ring of thieves used chisels and saws to break into the roof of a bank in the city of Orange. They entered the vault through the ceiling and pried open dozens of safe deposit boxes.

When bank employees arrived for work the next day, they found the thieves had gotten away with money, papers, jewelry and assorted family heirlooms. The liability for the bank loomed large up to $2.6 million.

That was in January 2004.

But earlier this month, CVB Financial Corp., the parent of Citizen’s Business Bank, based in Ontario, made a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that appears to finally close the books on the night-long robbery.

Initially, the company paid $400,000 in claims to customers and set aside an additional $2.2 million to cover the rest of the potential claims. If the bank had to pay the claims, it would eat into the company’s profits and invoke shareholders’ ire.

By mid-2005, after wrangling with its insurance company, the bank was able to recoup the entire $2.6 million in estimated losses from the insurance company, so the loss was offset in its financial statements last year, the company said in its recent filing.

“It really wasn’t a big deal,” said Edward Biebrich, Jr., executive vice president and chief financial officer of Citizens Business Bank. “They compromised our security system at night and we’ve fixed the problem.

“At least it wasn’t a take down,” he said, referring to the term used when banks are robbed in broad daylight.