As you know I had a great win at the River Dragons related in the AGS must-hits thread only to discover my house had been burglarized
I will try to relate the events of the last 6 days. The most chaotic of my career. It still feels a bit unreal. I hope it will be cathartic but I wont be able to relate everything in one post. I will add over the next few days as I find the time.
As you read this post I am sure you guys will understand why I had to stay away from here for awhile. My entire focus was singular for the last few days.
Out of necessity I need to not mention a few details or change a detail or two but what I am relating is 99% accurate to what happened
The first thing obvious about the burglary was it was done by a professional. The security systems were easily overcome. Locks were picked with minimal damage using special tools.
Next, NO electonics were taken, not a thousands dollar stereo home theater system nor a 7 grand television. The two laptops were left in their place. No furniture was overturned, the house was not searched. Everything was left pretty much in place.
The person went straight for 2 pieces of unique furniture located in separate rooms behind which were hidden safes. These were easily opened. All money and valuables were removed.
Im not at liberty to say how much. Trust me, it was a big blow!
After those 2 locations the person went to one other location in a different room. They opened one cabinet only so they knew what they were looking for.
It was where thousands of my casino players cards from the hundreds of people I have dealt with through my whole career were stored. Dead cards, live cards, future cards.
THEY TOOK EVERY SINGLE PLAYERS CARD!
They had no pins. But they now had every name and corresponding account number from every casino in every market I'm hitting now and in the past.
There were only 5 people who knew the locations and contents of the safes and cabinet
I was facing the worst AP nightmare possible.
Someone from my most trusted inner circle of family and loved ones had not only robbed me but was trying to destroy me as well.
I am not trying to milk this one. I really dont think I can go on for now. I will continue this tomorrow.
See you guys then
I feel for you and knew immediately it was an inside job. You have the condolences of many I'm sure but we can live without the details.
Quote: MaxPenWhy don't you just stop talking now while you're still ahead. Nothing positive can come from sharing this experience. 5 people is ridiculous and now you want to make it 500?
I feel for you and knew immediately it was an inside job. You have the condolences of many I'm sure but we can live without the details.
500 people are welcome to look inside the safes now
They're empty
I've experienced something similar, including the betrayal. It's quite hard, for sure. Easy to say "it's only money." In fact, it is also years of work. And someone stealing your tool kit to replace that money. But ultimately, it's still true. There are things that could happen tomorrow that would make this seem trivial. These are good times to revisit why certain cliches are cliches. Take stock of exactly how lucky you really are to be born in the U.S. instead of Syria, China or Haiti. To be healthy. To have food and shelter. At this seemingly horrible moment, you are still living the dream life of many, many people even in THIS country. It's cheesy, but it's true.
On another note, we seem to vastly underestimate our ability to protect large amounts of money in the home. I didn't really tell that many people about my situation. Yet I had two poker players say, "yeah that sucks. My girlfriend stole most of my bankroll once."
I know a sports bettor who experienced an incident somewhat similar to yours.
It was a different scenario, but I believe David Sklansky was followed home and robbed of 5 or 6 figures.
When I consider that I'm not really friends with a large number of gamblers/APs, and consider that most people would keep something like this quiet, this seems to happen with a pretty alarming frequency.
Should that be a surprise? We forget how much money even $5,000 really is, never mind substantially more. The average bank robber nets $4330 for a far riskier operation.
Perhaps you and the rest of us can learn from this situation.
Be very careful. One thing I'd strongly consider is relocating. Switching houses is probably unavoidable. You might consider moving a decent distance away as well. The wrong people know too much.
Contact each person who knew and leave a message that it's very important they meet you downtown at the police station. Say no more than that. See who shows up.
Or something like that. Unless they are reading here, then no point.
Quote: BlueAirforcesYeah, people in the AP community talk too much.
If you say only 5 people knew, there's a high probability that one of the five told at least one or two people. Gonna be hard to work with any of those five guys again imo. I would have my suspicions if something like this ever happened to me.
I will continue tomorrow the sad tale
The list of five trusted "guys" were
One ex-girlfriend
One current girlfriend
My daughter
My son
My former son-in-law and father of my grandkids
Someone other than you knew the combinations ?
Yeah I'm confused he said a professional broke in, so no keys/etc... if it was a real safe pro that cracked them then maybe the trusted member got someone that can open safes?Quote: michael99000Why would the safes be “easily opened” ?
Someone other than you knew the combinations ?
Anyways I'm done speculating and can also agree to live without the details. Be very careful what you share. If someone knew about your cards/etc perhaps they know about your forums posting.
Quote: michael99000Why would the safes be “easily opened” ?
Someone other than you knew the combinations ?
The locks were intricately opened using tools that removed a plate and then twisted internal elements
And yet with minimal damage. The damage was slight warps so that the locking mechanism is now completely useless. The door cannot be closed
They would probably be impregnable to someone like you or me
As I said it was someone with deft mechanical skill.
It was completely shocking (to me at least) how it had been done