You might want to hold off on playing high stakes blackjack at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for a little while. After all, the casino was recently "victimized" by two robbers who donned sunglasses and wigs. Only they didn't really pull off the robbery since the two goons badly botched their attempt to steal $115,000 in chips. That said, let's take a look at how this Bellagio blackjack robbery story went down.
How It Started
Two suspicious men walked into the Bellagio over the weekend with a canister of caustic, eye-burning chemical. They then went up to a high stakes blackjack table and attempted to spray everybody there with the chemical; after several unsuccessful tries, they finally sprayed the dealer and players.
While everybody's eyes were burning, one of the robbers - Michael Q. Belton - grabbed 23 chips worth $5,000 a piece. The two robbers attempted to flee after this; the one who sprayed the chemical got away, but Belton was tackled by security. He unsuccessfully tried to resist and dropped all of the $5k chips in the process.
Sob Story
Following his failed attempt at robbing the Bellagio, Belton told detectives that he didn't know the other robber. In fact, he claimed to have only met the man recently - after responding to an ad about a car repossession job. When Belton and the robber came to Las Vegas on a supposed job, the robbery plot was finally revealed. Belton went on to tell prosecutors that the only reason he went along with the plot is because he's unemployed and needed money to help his sick grandmother.
The one thing that we can take away from this story is to never try robbing the Bellagio Casino. Anthony Carleo - a.k.a. The Bellagio Bandit - was busted after stealing $1.5 million from the establishment in 2010. He got away with the crime for a while, but was eventually busted after trying to sell chips to an undercover cop.
