At about 4:45 a.m. Monday, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s office received a report that an armed robbery was taking place at the California Grand Casino at the 5900 block of Pacheco Boulevard in Pacheco.
Deputies responded along with officers from nearby law enforcement agencies. A perimeter was set up and employees and customers were evacuated.
Police conducted a security sweep of the building but the suspect was not located. There were no injuries and the loss is still being determined.
Suspect description:
Male, 6′, approximately 200 pounds, wearing a full face Halloween mask, black hoodie jacket, dark pants, orange gloves, armed with a semi-automatic rifle.
It is believed the suspect fled in a 4-door Mercedes Benz.
Anyone with any information on this robbery is asked to contact the Office of the Sheriff Investigation Division at (925) 313-2662.
Never been to a casino. Do casino chips have a value outside the casino? And wouldn’t they all be tracked with a serial number or something? I’m confused as to how they have any value if stolen in a robbery. Apologies if this is a stupid question. Again, never been to a casino. (I’ve heard casinos have good food in the buffet lines??? If so, I’d have stolen some morning pastries or something.)
Not a bad question at all, Tom… we believe chips do have a value outside the target casino if the casino in question is part of a larger operation. We’re also not big casino people but we also believe chips have been equipped with holograms and other identifiers to help dissuade this sort of thing though, conceivably at least, we believe they could be exchanged at another casino in the casino chain.
Do we know that he stole chips? May have robbed customers of cash, or the cashier (though the photo appears to have been taken at a roulette table or something. I’m also not that familiar with casinos. I stick to quarter slot machines when I go.)
Check out photos we just uploaded. His non-gun gloved hand appears to be in the chip rack…
At least in Vegas, I believe that higher denomination chips have RFID tags that uniquely identify them and would allow for selective revocation/tracking if redeemed later. For lower values, it would be weird/suspicious to leave (and, therefore, re-enter) a casino with large numbers of low-denomination chips seeking to cash them in. Perhaps the bad guy could net a few hundred bucks, but seems very hard to net more than a few thousand dollars— stacked against what I assume is a nasty felony charge for pointing a gun at people.
Right… we weren’t going to mention the RFID capability. There have been BIG chip thefts in Las Vegas and precautions were taken afterward, as Chris mentions. They are big on taking precautions in Vegas…
He could easily have someone else cash them in. Do they bother to track chips at local casinos where cards only gambling takes place? Pacheco isn’t Vegas, Tahoe or Reno.