Saturday, Dec. 2, 2000 | 9:11 a.m.
LAS VEGAS - It's a terrifying scene that has become all too familiar on the Las Vegas Strip.
Armed men approach a casino cashier cage. One or two jump over the counter and the cash drawer is emptied quickly.
The daring robbers hop back across the counter and disappear into a throng of unsuspecting tourists. Sometimes a casino worker is beaten, other times the robbers turn the Strip into a potentially deadly shooting gallery as they make their escape from pursuing security guards. In most cases, the scenes are recorded on chilling videotape in the casinos' surveillance cameras.
Since September 1998, robbers have staged a string of bold casino heists at the Treasure Island, Bellagio, New York-New York, Mandalay Bay, Desert Inn and MGM Grand hotels, among the glitziest and biggest on the Strip.
With millions of dollars in surveillance cameras and a small army of security guards, who dares to rob a casino?
Las Vegas police Lt. John Alamshaw says it takes a combination of violence and arrogance.
"It probably started happening eight or nine years ago," he said. "Robbers have become more blatant, people more violent.
"Takeover-style robberies have become popular, they started in the banks and went to different businesses. It's just a popular style. It's nothing new. It's not just here, it's happening all over."
The perception was in the old days, when casino ownership was less corporate and perhaps more an organized family affair, that no one who valued their health would try to knock off a casino. It seemed too risky to steal money that might be the mob's.
Robberies occurred, but only occasionally.
Despite the string of recent robberies, Las Vegas Metro police don't see a trend.
"You see it everywhere," Lt. Chris Darcy said.
"I don't want to say it's a rash," Alamshaw said, "because five of the robberies were done by the same group," he said referring to evidence that links the men accused of the Bellagio heist in June to other casino cage thefts.
The increased number of people visiting Las Vegas - 33.8 million last year - also is a factor.
"With more people coming in, sometimes they feel like they can blend in," Alamshaw said.
Casino executive Richard Goeglein says casinos have always been targets.
"I remember quite awhile back somebody walked into the Stardust and filled up a suitcase (from the casino cage)," said Goeglein, the chief executive officer of the newly opened Aladdin resort. "It's not unheard of over the years, it just seems we've had a rash lately."
"Years ago, L.A. gang members came up and hit casinos. So they changed their practices and made it harder by putting up bars and glass in the cages," Alamshaw said.
"The casinos have to take responsibility in trying to prevent robberies," said Alamshaw, who credits Bellagio's system in helping capture the suspects in the June robbery.
Despite the robberies, Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage, owner of three casinos that have been hit - Treasure Island, Bellagio and MGM - said the company has no plans to remodel the main casino cages that have only a counter between them and the public or would-be robbers.
The cages in the new megaresorts were designed to be more customer friendly, but as a result, allow easier access than the older "cages" that have bars.
"It's been our experience, citywide, that cages with some sort of barrier get robbed as much as those that don't," he said, adding if someone is bent on doing something illegal, a few bars aren't going to stop them.
In the most recent robbery at Treasure Island, last month a lone gunman jumped over the main casino cage just after midnight hitting and robbing a cashier, police said. He shot at and missed two security guards as he fled with an undisclosed amount of money, a spokesman said.
Police are looking for Reginald Johnson, 27, in connection with the robbery as well as one last summer. Johnson and his brother Donnell are suspects in the July 12 robbery of the Treasure Island main casino cage when two armed men sent two employees to the hospital when they pistol-whipped a security guard and a cashier and escaped with a large amount of money.
Donnell Johnson is being held in Georgia on other charges, Alamshaw said. He added that charges likely will be filed against Donnell Johnson in the July robbery.
Donnell Johnson also is suspected in the robberies of Treasure Island, MGM Grand and the Tropicana resorts 3 1/2 years ago, Alamshaw said.
But police don't think the Johnson brothers are connected to a group of men suspected in a string of casino and armored car robberies over the past several years, including the March fatal armored car robbery in Henderson, despite several similarities.
In the June 3 Bellagio casino cage robbery, two men jumped over the casino cage and took about $160,000 in cash and casino chips while a third stood lookout.
Two of the suspects in the Bellagio robbery - Jose Vigoa and Luis Suarez - are scheduled for trial Dec. 8. The third suspect, Oscar Cisneros Sanchez, hanged himself in his cell in October. Members of the trio are suspects in four other casino robberies.
Alamshaw pointed to Vigoa as an example of what he refers to as criminals' growing arrogance.
"Vigoa stayed in town even though his face was all over TV."
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