Luck runs out for admitted thief

Keith Paul

Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

Reginald Johnson was in Las Vegas this week on business. A job that was never personal to him, it was just what he did -- robberies.

So he was in town this week scoping out some potential job locations. But when he was left penniless by a mishap, he went to work.

Johnson successfully robbed the Treasure Island hotel-casino twice in the past five months, making off with more than $100,000. He decided that was going to be the target Tuesday night.

"I came to town and as chance would have it, I left my wallet in a taxi. I didn't realize it was gone until I was in another taxi," he said. "I knew people were looking for me so I couldn't just go and use Western Union."

His luck in Las Vegas ran out about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday after his robbery attempt was thwarted, again leaving him penniless, cold and on the run in his getaway costume -- a Santa Claus hat and a woman's nightgown.

By Wednesday morning a Metro Police officer was called to investigate a "suspicious person" in the 5100 block of East Lake Mead Boulevard. The officer found a freezing Johnson.

"There comes a time when you have to concede, a la Al Gore. This was my time. I was cold. I had no money and no means to get out of Las Vegas."

When the officer approached, Johnson was rubbing his cold feet. "I'm the one you're looking for. I'm Reginald Johnson," he said.

Johnson was being held today without bond in the Clark County Detention Center on assorted charges ranging from attempted murder to robbery.

He is accused of going into the resort about 11:30 p.m., shooting a security guard and trying to rob the main cage. Newly installed bars on the cage prevented him from jumping over the counter as he had twice before.

"They shocked the hell out of me with that gate. I had to change my plan accordingly," Johnson said in a jailhouse interview Wednesday with the Sun.

"I set an example by shooting the guard. I placed the gun on his arm. I knew exactly where I was shooting him."

The security guard, Mauro Torres, was listed in fair condition at University Medical Center this morning.

But the shot scared the women behind the cage's counter, and they ducked underneath. Johnson had to flee without any money.

Lt. John Alamshaw suspected Johnson was responsible for Tuesday night's robbery after seeing the surveillance video and also suspected Metro would soon catch the robber because he didn't get away with any money.

"There was absolutely no reason to shoot the security guard. He shot him from the back," said Alamshaw, head of Metro's robbery unit. "There was an escalation of violence. In the July robbery, he hit an employee (working at the cage). In the October robbery, he shot at security guards."

While Johnson describes himself as "an intellectual, but thuggish," Alamshaw paints a different picture of a violent robber who will do anything and hurt anyone to get what he wants and get away.

Johnson, who will turn 27 on Christmas Eve, had no remorse for any of the violence.

"It wasn't personal, it's business," he said. "He was shot because he was an obstacle. It was my way of dealing with (the installation of the security bars on the cage)."

Johnson and his brother Donnell Johnson had been pulling capers all over the country since January when Reginald Johnson got out of a Tennessee prison after serving seven years for robbery. Donnell Johnson currently is in federal custody on other charges.

"This is what I do," Reginald Johnson said. Then he asked how much money reporters make. "I make more than that in two minutes. I want to live comfortably, and this enables me to get the money to do that."

After he and his brother hit Treasure Island in July, they rented a small jet with some of the loot and made a getaway to Southern California.

But Tuesday night he didn't have any money for a getaway. He dumped the gun used in the robbery and his clothing into a trash container and walked away.

"They were looking for a guy in a blue cap, not a guy in a Santa hat and a woman's night gown," he said.

"This is Las Vegas anything goes. I was sitting on the bus stop near the Stardust watching the police cars go by looking for me."

But in the next breath, the admitted career robber praised Metro's investigation.

"Their response time was better than other places," Johnson said.

While robberies such as the one at Treasure Island get a lot of media attention, casino robberies make up a very small percentage of area holdups. In 1999 there were more than 3,000 robberies in Metro's jurisdiction and only a handful of those were casino robberies.

But even the most sensational robberies in crowded casinos are not likely to deter tourists from coming to Las Vegas, said D. Anthony Nichter, a UNLV instructor and casino training specialist.

"Banks are regularly hit, but by the end of the week people will be standing in line at the bank to cash their checks on Friday as if it never happened," he said. "Statically, there is more of a chance of getting caught in the middle of a robbery in a convenience store than seeing bullets fly in a casino."

But that means nothing for the people captured in the Treasure Island surveillance video running away as Johnson shot the security guard and then into the cage as he tried to get money.

Johnson said he knows that his career is over. He will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison for the robberies he admits he committed in Las Vegas and in several other states.

"I always knew that I would either die in the street or in prison," he said. "I don't apologize for what I've done. It's not like I'm going to give the money back. I still have some, but I'm not going to tell them where it is."