Cashier sought in theft at Horseshoe

Cathy Scott

Thursday, May 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A Binion's Horseshoe employee is being accused of walking away with $209,000 from a cashier's cage in the middle of a power outage.

The theft took place at 3:45 a.m. Monday during the annual World Series of Poker championship at Binion's. Just one cage, called a "one-man cage," was operating because of the tournament, said Phil Roland, spokesman for Metro Police.

The theft allegedly took place like this: Curtis Hartz, a 58-year-old cashier working inside the cage, was at his position behind the counter when there was a power failure at the casino. When the power came back on a few minutes later, Hartz was missing and so was the money.

"His keys were in the booth," Roland said. "The power failure seemed to be coincidental. It didn't appear to be planned. He apparently took advantage of the situation.

"When the power went back on, a pretty short time, the guy was gone. His keys were in the booth. The only thing missing was $209,000."

A warrant for Hartz's arrest was to be issued today. Investigators have been unable to locate Hartz since the theft. Police identified him as a suspect "because he's on (surveillance) tape," Roland said.

Sgt. Larry Duis with Metro's fraud unit said the "power outage was strictly a coincidental thing."

"They'd had problems with the power before," Duis said. "Casinos don't go completely dark. There's emergency lighting. He left during that time."

That's why the surveillance camera, still working, captured Hartz.

"We have him on video loading money into a bag in the casino," Duis said.

Hartz, originally from Minneapolis, Minn., had only been working at Binion's since February.

"If we get a warrant we'll put it in the national computer base and go from there," Duis said.