Casino robbery linked to others

Keith Paul

Tuesday, June 6, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Metro Police suspect the armed robbers who held up a cashier's cage at the Bellagio hotel-casino on Saturday may be connected to three other violent heists in the Las Vegas area.

"The way they did the robbery led us to believe there is a possibility they are connected, and we are looking into it," said Lt. John Alamshaw of Metro's robbery unit. "We want to put the (security camera) video out in Utah, California, Arizona and the rest of Nevada, because they may have left the area."

Henderson Police Capt. Richard Perkins said detectives will talk with Metro officials to see if there is any connection with the unsolved killings on March 3 of armored car guards Richard F. Sosa and Gary Dean Prestidge II at a shopping center.

Alamshaw said detectives will also look for similarities between the Bellagio robbery, the October 1999 armored car holdup at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino and the botched armored car heist in June 1999 at the Desert Inn hotel-casino.

The Bellagio robbery occurred about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, when two men vaulted over the counter at the cashier's cage while the third man stood guard at the front of the cashier area.

At least two of the men were armed with handguns during the robbery, and on their way out of the casino they robbed a smaller change booth. Police would not say how much money was stolen.

The robbers left through a set of doors near the main entrance, where they had a stolen van with stolen plates waiting in a valet parking zone.

Bellagio security guards chased the three as they fled the building, and the robbers fired two shots at the security officers outside the casino. No one was injured.

The robbers left the stolen van at the Boardwalk hotel-casino, got into another car and fled the area. They got into a minor accident while trying to escape in the second car, he said.

Using a stolen van and then dumping it was also employed in the Henderson armored car robbery, Alamshaw said. He noted that is a common technique employed by robbers.

The armored car heist at the Desert Inn ended with robbers firing shots into a crowded parking lot and wounding two guards.

The robbers in the Bellagio heist are described as Latin or dark-skinned white men between 25 and 35 years old. One is 5 feet 10 inches tall with a muscular build and was carrying a black handgun, police said.

The second man is 6 feet tall with a large build and was not seen carrying a weapon, while the third man also had a large build and was armed with a silver handgun.

Anyone with information about these men or the robbery is asked to call detectives at 229-3591 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.