07:05
13 Aug
The Hustler Casino in California was the scene of an armed ambush this week when several assailants attacked an armoured vehicle, making off with a sum of money and leaving a security guard injured with a gunshot wound…
Home to the hugely-popular Hustler Casino Live show, the casino on Redondo Beach Blvd, Gardena, was targeted by an armed gang, who opened fire on security guards as they left their armoured vehicle last Thursday.
“From what I understand, as soon as they got out of the [armored truck] they were met with gunfire,” Lt. Christopher Cuff of the Gardena Police Department told reporters.
He added that the suspects were armed with handguns and at least one rifle but did not enter the casino itself, although several patrons fled the casino parking lot into the building.
After being met by a return of gunfire, the suspects fled the scene, but one security guard was shot in the incident, though his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
A second security guard, also believed to be working for Loomis US, received “cuts and multiple lacerations” in the incident according to police reports, though not from gunshots.
Police have not released a description of the armed robbers other than that they wore “dark clothing”, although they recovered a white sedan thought to be the vehicle used by the villains.
Armored truck heists at casinos are nothing new, with two high-profile robberies at the MGM and Circus Circus casinos in the 1990s netting the thieves $millions.
In October 1993, robbers stole $3.1 million from a Loomis armored truck outside the Circus Circus casino hotel.
The story behind the raid made its way to Netflix’s “Heist” series, focusing on the relationship between career criminal Robert Solis and his sidekick Heather Tallchief.
Tallchief was persuaded to get a job with Loomis and would drive to casinos up and down the Strip, waiting while her colleagues filled the ATMs with cash.
On the day of the heist, when the truck was filled with $20 and $100 bills to get the casinos through the weekend, she dropped the guards at Circus Circus, waited for them to enter the casino and simply drove off.
In January 1994, the then-newest mega-hotel casino on the Strip, the $1billion MGM Grand, fell victim to a daring daylight robbery.
This incident saw the driver of a Loomis armored truck was waiting for two partners to return from inside the casino when a masked gunman entered the cab.
The gunman handcuffed the driver and forced him into the back of the truck, then drove to a waiting car where the cash was transferred.
Check out our top 5 casino heists of all-time article for more daring raids and dastardly crimes.
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