Suspect robs change cart at Strip hotel-casino

Lisa Snedeker

Monday, Jan. 15, 2001 | 4:19 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas police are searching for a man who robbed a change cart worker at The Venetian resort Monday morning.

The man who is thought to have been armed, fled with an undisclosed, but small, amount of cash, police said.

Hotel executives described the 10:50 a.m. robbery as a "hit and run." The robbery took place on the edge of the casino, near the front entrance.

A female change cart employee told police that the man said he was armed and acted as if he were reaching for a gun, but she did not see a weapon. No one was injured.

"We certainly want people to know when they come to the Venetian that it is a safe place," spokesman Kurt Ouchida said.

The robbery is the ninth in a string of bold casino heists at Las Vegas Strip hotel-casinos, including Treasure Island, Bellagio, New York-New York, Mandalay Bay, Desert Inn and MGM Grand that began September 1998.

In the other robberies, armed men approached a casino cashier cage and jumped over the counter. They emptied cash drawers before hopping back across the counter and disappearing into a throng of tourists. In some instances, casino workers have been beaten. A security guard was shot during one heist.

Police think they have arrested all the suspects in the eight previous robberies.

A 27-year-old man suspected of robbing and attempting to rob Treasure Island on three separate occasions is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Reginald Johnson faces 15 criminal charges ranging from attempted murder to robbery and burglary in connection with incidents that took place in the hotel's casino July 12, Oct. 30 and Dec. 12.

Johnson, who is suspected of getting away with more than $100,000, was arrested Dec. 13 and is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.

Police allege Johnson became upset Dec. 12 when he realized bars had been put up at the casino cage since his last robbery and he shot a guard and fled empty-handed. The guard has since recovered.

His brother, Donnell Johnson, who is being held in Georgia on other charges, is also a suspect in the July robbery and two jewelry store robberies in San Diego last summer.

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 June 3 robbery of the Bellagio's casino cage or the March fatal armored car robbery in Henderson, despite several similarities.