Three-card monte expert Rod the Hop, R.I.P.
byThey’s ony three kinda men I won’t play with: That’s a po’ man, a blind man, an a police-man! Rod the Hop, my Las…
Vegas
Somehow about Las Vegas.
Skimmers in bank doors
byEver use an ATM at a bank after hours? Was it inside a locked vestibule, where you had to swipe your bank card to…
A devious scorpion scam
byIntruder on the loose. In the midst of all the excitement of the premiere of our National Geographic documentary, and all the television promotion…
H&R Block reneges on promise, cops-out on client
byWhen a giant corporation closes its shutters and bolts its doors against its own client, its like a reverse prison. I, the client, feel…
Gas pump skimmers attached in 11 seconds
byBreaking news from Las Vegas Metro’s Kim Thomas, the fraud cop featured in my story on credit card skimmers hidden in gas pumps. Detective…
Las Vegas real estate business ethics
byLegal-but-dirty, beat-the-system, shady business is being committed by Las Vegas homeowners at the inducement of a real estate agent, as reported by Joel Stein…
Skimmers and credit card fraud (more)
bySkimmers, officially called magnetic card readers, capture the data on a card’s magnetic strip. Exactly what information is that? Credit and debit cards have…
High-tech identity theft today
by…¢ Identity theft is now the number one crime in the world. …¢ Las Vegas is number one in the U.S. for ID theft;…
ID theft buffet
byA former mortgage broker put 40 boxes of customers’ personal information into a Las Vegas dumpster. It was December 2006, but we all knew…
Sloppy business at UPS
byFour days away from an international trip and Bob and I have no passports. Scary. They were perfectly good and valid still for five…
Social engineering—is it time to curtail trust?
byA couple of scumbags have been casing neighborhoods in Las Vegas, preying on elders. They chat up residents, pretending to be a former resident…
Las Vegas’ most prolific prostitutes
by52-Pickup—Las Vegas police are suddenly, aggressively, picking up prostitutes in the “resort corridor” of the city. Armed with a deck—or a list, anyway—of our…
Las Vegas people
byThere’s no question that Las Vegas attracts an upside-down bell curve of residents, no matter what scale one uses for measurement. We have a…
How to cut down a tree; Requiem for a tree
byt was a mesquite, 35 or so feet tall, graceful in an awkward way. Craving light, the poor thing crooked its trunk this way…
Criminal on the loose
byWhy am I compelled to run outside every time I hear the police helicopter hovering over my house? If there’s a criminal on the…
When courtesy is exhausting
byHad to go to the Apple store in the mall last night, and it turned into a long visit while Bob sorted out some…
Luggage theft at Las Vegas airport carousels
byBig article in today’s Las Vegas Review Journal on bag theft at the McCarran airport carousels. No surprise. This isn’t new. In my book,…
Foreigners in Las Vegas
byMy Swedish brother-in-law came to visit us in Las Vegas. While Bob and I were off on a trip, he decided to upgrade our…
Video surveillance
byWho’s looking at you when you buy a coffee? It’s creepy, when you know all they can see. At the World Game Protection Conference…
Bambi + Las Vegas = stripper
by“Bambi? In Las Vegas? Really? Are you a stripper? [Guffaw.]” If your name is Bambi and you live in Las Vegas, these, apparently, are…
Ceiling critters
byWhat is on my ceiling? Looks like a thumbprint—gray, like newsprint. Except… my kitchen ceiling is the cottage cheese type. A thumbprint isn’t possible….
Lock ’em up!
byKim Thomas, a Vegas cop, posted a telling comment on crime statistics, and criminal rehabilitation vs. incarceration. Detective Thomas is the author of Vegas:…
Looking up
byMy Mac’s power cord is stretched taut. I’m on my patio on a glorious spring day. Just a little too windy for my taste,…
Criminal on the loose
byEvening. A sudden, deafening heartbeat jars my bones, and a vague anxiety revisits. The helicopter is back. Hovering low, its searchlight swings over my…