I was watching our local news, and yesterday a home invasion robbery took place near Las Vegas. The gang of robbers tied they guy up and ransacked his home. They stold his coin collection along with whatever else. Anyway, today they took a bunch of Walkers to a supermarket and tried to exchange them for currency. A sharp store employee notified the cops and they nailed the gang. Thought it was worth mentioning. gary
That's not quite as dramatic as the guy who robbed the Bellagio of $1.5 million in chips and escaped down the Strip on his motorcycle early this morning.
Hey, this is another story to unfold here. I know that most $5000 and higher chips have GPS chips embedded in them so the Casino can track their location. If this isn;t some kind of inside job, there are probably staking him out right now. The point of the other crime, was that most people here are very aware of the value of Silver coins. Exchanging them at face is very suspicious indeed. And actually, the guy didn;t have anything in his hands as he crossed the Porte Cochere fleeing at a run. He was wearing a heavy jacket though. Must have had the pockets full ? I mean this is all very strange.
I believe most casinos change chips fairly often and It would not surprise me if they keep a suppy of new ones on hand. Someone stole $1.5 million worth, you stop play walk out the new chips and exchange them. Play resumes and the old chips are now worthless.
Good story. Sad to think about the trauma to the family. A good time to keep the Rugers loaded and ready to go (no kids in the house - just cats). My 155 pound dog is named Ruger too. I use to dabble in martial arts. I don't have the physical health for that anymore, hence the firearms training. I cherish my firearms as much and perhaps ever more than my coins.
You can't just demonitize ( sp) the chips that easily. People often hold onto to them and use them on a return visit, so they are out there. $100 chips ( I think the lowest denomination stolen ? ) are a very routinely used item. Those can be effectively cashed in over time and washed into play in a few months. The higher checks ( chips) like $25,000 would be nearly impossible to get rid of. You'd need the help of a high-roller....not advisable to sell them off at a discount. The thief probably netted more like 10k- 20k in Black ( $100 checks)....and probably will get caught trying to sell the big ones.
I'm glad they got caught ! Very dumb thieves, assuming this is junk silver and not high quality stuff...one could easily sell these for 10X of face to the thieves/ fences that buy gold/ silver on every street corner everywhere....just do like 5 at a time...pretty untraceable stuff, and the half price buyer/ fence won't be calling Metro. ( LVMPD).
Actually they can demonitize them that easily. They change them from time to time because of counterfeiting and for other reasons. I would imagine if you could show that you had been there recently they would probably allow you to exchange them. But they do keep records and if they show you were up a few hundred and you are truing to exchange a few thousand you would probably have some explaining to do.
They are impossible to cash in. As I said, the chips above 5k have GPS chips embedded in them and the lower denominations have authentication codes embedded. There is no way to convert them to currency unless you sell them to someone foolish enough to buy them. Once they exit the door, chips are Worthless !! He would have been better off stealing deposit slips or other paper from a bank he could sell for recycling. This is so stupid, it has to be a publicity stunt or something. I cannot believe anyone is that dumb. But he did have a weapon or facsimile of one in the film I saw. Go figure ? gary
I don't know, beyond it was part of the victim's coin collection. They may have removed coins from slabs or they may have been raw. Still, better to spend them than to try and cash them in. But, if people who do these type of crimes were intelligent, they would likely have decent jobs and not resort to thievery. I mean at the Cruxification, the thief was forgiven, but his sentence was still carried out.
While in spirit Gary you're absolutely correct, it is RFID that is embedded in casino chips, not GPS. RFID is a passive technology; while GPS is not. See: http://www.minyanville.com/business...-casino-rfid-gambling-las/12/15/2010/id/31714
Over the past 20 years some of the highest paying "decent" jobs in this country have involved thievery. The only difference is that when they get caught , they get golden parachutes instead of prison time.
