Hot lead in armored car heist turns cold

Keith Paul

Thursday, April 6, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

Word that a Las Vegas man was bragging he was part of the month-old armored car robbery in Henderson that left two guards dead figured to be the break in the case for detectives.

After more than four weeks of following up leads in the case, Henderson Police thought they had identified a suspect in the deadly daytime robbery in the parking lot of a busy shopping center.

Detectives started checking out the man's story. He had told people he was one of the three robbers in the March 3 heist in front of the Ross Dress for Less store in the Whitney Ranch Center on Stephanie Street.

But it turned out the man wasn't there. He was only bragging about being involved, perhaps to increase his standing among his friends and acquaintances.

"We had gone back and reconstructed his activities the day of the robbery," Capt. Richard Perkins of Henderson Police's investigations unit said. "He had an alibi. He was somewhere else when the robbery happened. He wasn't anywhere near it."

But the man didn't simply spin a tale about being involved in the ambush robbery. He also insisted he was about to make his getaway to Mexico.

"I don't know why he did it. I guess he was trying to be a big man on campus, and the information got relayed to us," Perkins said. "When our guys showed up to talk to him, he said 'It wasn't me.' "

Following up the bogus lead took "hundreds of hours" of time from the eight detectives working the case, Perkins said.

Today detectives are back to following up other leads in the robbery that left Armored Transport of Nevada guards Richard F. Sosa, 47, and Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23, dead. Police do not have any suspects identified and don't know if the robbers are still in the area or have fled, Perkins said.

The robbery was obviously well planned. Police say hours before the 11:25 a.m. deadly heist, the robbers parked two stolen minivans in the parking lot in front of the store and waited inside armed with assault rifles. Another man waited nearby in a getaway car.

The two gunmen confronted Prestidge as he was carrying a money bag, and a gunfight started. Prestidge was able to get off five shots and wounded one of the three robbers. Sosa was shot and killed while still inside the armored truck. The robbers fled with three money bags in the getaway car, but dumped the vehicle off at a nearby mall and escaped in another car they had waiting, police said.

All of the cars used in the robbery were part of a group of cars stolen in January from a Thrifty Car Rental.

Henderson Police continue to work with assistance from the FBI and Metro Police.

The FBI has sent evidence collected from the scene to its crime lab, said Special Agent Joe Dickey, a spokesman for the Las Vegas FBI office.

"We also have agents all over the country, so we can network and send leads to them to check out," he said.

Henderson detectives are working with Metro Police detectives checking into a couple of past armored car robberies that occurred at hotel-casinos in Las Vegas to determine if there are any connections.

Police were checking into last year's armored car robberies at the Mandalay Bay and Desert Inn hotel-casinos and the 1998 armed car heist at the MGM Grand hotel-casino.

"We don't have anything rock solid, but there may be a connection," Perkins said.

There are no suspects in those cases, Perkins said.

Keith Paul covers crime and public safety for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4057 or by e-mail at keith@lasvegassun.com