Bellagio heist soured quickly for accused bandit
The scenes that led to the Bellagio bandits downfall look less like Oceans Eleven and more like Americas Dumbest
Bragging about a big gambling score with high school buddies over rounds of shots in Colorado. E-mailing pictures to a total stranger dated and signed Biker Bandit with two $25,000 Bellagio chips. Losing $105,000 gambling at the scene of the crime in Las Vegas, but cashing out nearly $209,000 and apparently hoping the casino would not notice.
The deceptively simple burglary lit up the Internet appealing to anyone who has ever had fantasies about pulling off a major score against a casino giant. But police say Anthony Carleos shoddy plan after stealing $1.5 million in chips unfolded like a badly played poker hand.
Police say hes the helmeted bandit who entered the Bellagio on December 14, brandished a gun and made off on a motorcycle with the chips in denominations from $100 to $25,000. He was arrested a day after an undercover officer bought four $25,000 chips from him, then offered an invitation to become part of a crew that would rob casinos, including the Bellagio.
Carleos response to officers: Hed already robbed the place.
In between the brazen heist and the arrest, as Carleo gambled and partied, the cops were hot on his tail, according to an arrest report.
Two days before Christmas, Bellagio security told police that a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army tried to cash a $25,000 chip along with a friend. The worker told police the chip was dropped into his pocket from an unknown man while he took donations from a walkway between the MGM Grand and New York-New York casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
Police confiscated the chip.
By New Years Eve, Carleo was back at the Bellagio, losing $72,000 in one night and spending a week in January at the casino living for free on the casinos dime as a high roller.
On January 4, Carleo lost an $11,000 pot, then left and came back a short time later with $5,000 in chips, the source said. His activity at the tables did not match what he was cashing out, and casino workers noticed.
After losing big at the Bellagio, Carleo told people he knew from the poker tables he was behind the heist. A police informant told officers hed heard about Carleo from a friend.
On January 16, Carleo approached Brooks on Two Plus Two, a popular Web forum where the heist was a hot topic, with players discussing how the bandit might try to turn his chips into real money, Brooks said. Eventually, they talked by phone.
At first, Carleo spoke vaguely about the chips, Brooks said, but gradually he became more specific.
Carleo e-mailed several pictures to Brooks depicting two $25,000 Bellagio chips affectionately known as cranberries to gamblers because of their color.
Cranberries are good for the liver! reads the postscript on the note in the picture. Brooks called the FBI, local police and the casino.
Carleo was arrested Wednesday night without resisting, and admitted his involvement in the robbery, police said.
Despite the suspects seemingly unplanned actions after the heist, his return to the Bellagio wasnt all that surprising, said Dave Schwartz, a former casino security officer in Atlantic City who now runs the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Usually, he said, casino burglars come back to the scene of the crime to cash in chips or to try to steal more.
Schwartz said the case showed how casinos and police are more measured and methodical than hasty when it comes to catching casino thieves.
It was evident, Brooks said, that Carleo didnt have much of a plan.
It was not Brad Pitt talking to me, he said, referring to one of the stars of heist film Oceans Eleven. It was not George Clooney. ap
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