By now you may have heard about a man in a motorcycle helmet who entered the famed Bellagio casino in Las Vegas -- the same gambling palace that a motley crew of criminals led by George Clooney knocked over in "Ocean's Eleven" -- early Tuesday morning and made off with at least $1.5 million at gunpoint.
But initial reports didn't mention that most of the enterprising bandit's take was in casino chips rather than hard cash. If he sets out to turn in those chips for actual money, he will be running a considerable risk -- especially if he turns up at the scene of the crime trying to cash out some of the $25,000 chips he made off with. Those chips rarely get circulated at the casino's cashier windows, and the bosses at places like the Bellagio tend to monitor pretty closely any transactions involving them. (In theory, of course, the bandit could recruit an accomplice to act as a front person in the money swap, presumably for a cut of the payout -- but the same scrutiny for anyone cashing in big-stakes chips would still apply in that scenario.)
[Tough choice: Let bandit flee or start shootout]
Indeed, longtime observers of the casino business say that the bandit has constructed a rather elegant trap for himself, should he want to convert his winnings into a personal economic stimulus plan. David Schwartz, director of gaming research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he "can't think of any way" the robber could return to redeem the chips without being caught.
"It's not like they're currency that you can use anywhere, Schwartz told the paper. "If you steal so many chips, in such a big, dramatic way, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny at the casino, and that makes it very difficult to cash in."
While the casino industry is highly secretive about the security measures it takes, many experts believe it's likely that the chips used in big casinos like the Bellagio are embedded with tiny electronic devices so they can be tracked and identified.
[See also: California strip mall gunbattle leaves 2 people dead]
And this is evidently not a wrongdoer who's likely to learn from past mistakes. Police believe the same robber made off with about $20,000 in chips from the Las Vegas Suncoast Casino a few days earlier. We imagine him sitting in a poorly lit apartment staring at the chips right now trying to figure out how to cash them in -- good luck with that, pal.
Below is video of the culprit making a dash for his motorcycle outside of the Bellagio on Tuesday morning:
Nevertheless, the miscues of the Bellagio bandit, as self-defeating as they may be, still aren't really enough to distinguish him in the company of some of the most wayward legal offenders of the past year.
There is, for instance, Calvin Hoover of Salem, Oregon, who last year repeatedly called 911 to report that someone had stolen an ounce of marijuana from his truck, an act of foolishness that turned him from victim to criminal in a matter of hours.
And then there was Sterling F. Wolfname, a murder suspect on the run from police in Billings, Montana, who was caught by police when they spotted a man who had "Wolfname" tattooed on the side of his head. That inattention to detail has already landed Wolfname on the list of the 21st century's 21 dumbest criminals.
Oh, and let's not forget Douglas Gardner of Vermont, who picked up his eighth DUI just days after spending 20 years in prison for killing a man in the course of committing his seventh DUI.
With apologies to McGruff the Crime Dog, these guys appear to be doing all they can to take the bright out of crime.
(Photo: AP/Laura Rauch)
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