Holy Ocean's Eleven: Police say Las Vegas man stole $1 million from casino by posing as owner
A Las Vegas man has been charged with bilking a downtown casino of more than $1 million in cash.
Erik Gutierrez, 23, was charged with theft of more than $100,000 after police said he posed as the owner of Circa Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas and convinced a casino employee to give him multiple payments totaling $1.17 million, according to an arrest report provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The casino's cage supervisor told police that a person claiming to be the hotel owner told the supervisor to remove $320,000 for an emergency payment to the fire department for fire safety devices. The supervisor was subsequently asked to return to the hotel and deliver two more cash deliveries, with the total of them amounting to $1.17 million, police said. Two of the deliveries, the employee said, were given to someone they had been told was the hotel owner’s attorney, according to the report.
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Detectives used video evidence from one of the meeting locations, an IHOP restaurant, to find a vehicle, which led them to an address where they thought the suspect lived with an aunt. While police were at the address, a man arrived in an SUV, entered the residence, and left with a backpack. Police got a search warrant for that vehicle and detained Gutierrez and another man. They searched the SUV but found no money there.
At the same time, Las Vegas police detectives and officers searching the home found identification belonging to Gutierrez and a “large bag of U.S. currency bundled together with the name Circa written on the bundle,” totaling $849,900, along with other items, according to the police report.
The cage supervisor identified the person who got the first two deliveries as the suspect, police said. They later arrested Gutierrez at a gym on June 18. Police are still investigating the identity of the first person who was given the initial cash delivery.
Judge Amy Ferreira set Gutierrez’s bail at $25,000 and ordered him to stay away from Circa and the Fremont Street Experience if he posts bond, Las Vegas CBS TV station KLAS reported. Gutierrez faces a similar charge out of Mesquite (Nevada) Justice Court, where his bail has been set at $20,000, according to the outlet.
“Although I love a good PR story, this isn’t one of them,” Circa CEO Derek Stevens told WLAS in a statement. “Circa Resort & Casino is cooperating with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in this investigation. We greatly appreciate their efforts to date and cannot comment further due to an ongoing investigation.”
The fraud incident is "very similar" to one that occurred at another Clark County property and another case out of state, police said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Las Vegas police arrest Eric Gutierrez in $1 million Circa Resort scam
