Here we go again... laptops and cash stolen from Rio hotel rooms

The WSOP is only 2 days old, and we already have 3 reports of laptops and cash being stolen from hotel rooms at the Rio.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2014/0...ooms-18372.htm

From Twitter:

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LAURI PESONEN @oopinlare
Both my and @Jouhkb's laptops stolen from our room at Rio. Everything else, wallets, ipads etc still here. EPT Barcelona again?

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JONI JOUHKIMAINEN @Jouhkb
Just found out that the guys also took our sanitary bags and sunglasses instead of iPad&wallets wtf . Whats wrong with this people

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MANH NGUYEN @MunMunny
Did that really happen to me? Am I dreaming? Please wake up... Please wake up.

Attention poker players: large sums of money has been stolen out of my room at rio last night.

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Later, Manh Nguyen explained:

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I came to the Rio for the WSOP with my friend Jimmy Chen. He's a PLO cash game grinder. Jimmy and I checked into the Rio on May 27 around 6:30 p.m. We came to the room and dropped our bags off and went to dinner. When we got back to our room a total of $35,000 had been taken out of our bags. We got back to the room around midnight. Luckily we didn't have all of our money in one spot so all of it wasn't taken. It didn't look like they went through any of my other stuff. Nothing else was taken. Room was not messy almost as if they knew to check the backpacks. I called the police and Rio security and filed a report. I find out that there are no security cameras in the Rio hallways, only in the elevators, and that we are just basically screwed.

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During the 2013 WSOP, poker player Eric Songstegard had $3000 and an iPad stolen from his Rio room, in what appears to have been a mixup involving a second person accidentally being assigned his room, and subsequently stealing his stuff: http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...-from-his-room

Later in 2013, rooms at the EPT Barcelona at the Barcelona Arts hotel were being broken into and laptops had keyloggers/trojans installed. It appears that hotel security was in on it, and Pokerstars helped cover the matter up: http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...-EPT-Barcelona


A few questions remain regarding these thefts:

1) How come the Rio does not have a record of who entered the rooms? That should be in the memory of the keyreading machine in each door, as it was at the Barcelona Arts.

2) Was there a Do Not Disturb sign on the door? Could the maids have done this?

3) Why did Manh Nguyen leave $35k in his backpack unattended, without even putting it in the room safe?

4) Why didn't these thieves go for the wallets?


I do think there is a fair chance that these guys were targeted by Rio staff members who saw them check in, had accomplices follow them in some way, and then entered the room when it appeared the coast was clear.

It's also interesting how BOTH victims had roommates. Is it possible that it wasn't a Rio employee or outside thief? Unlikely, but possible.


These guys should press the Rio HARD for resolution in this matter, as Eric Sonstegard did. They like sweeping things under the rug.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

The WSOP is only 2 days old, and we already have 3 reports of laptops and cash being stolen from hotel rooms at the Rio.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2014/0...ooms-18372.htm

From Twitter:

Quote:

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JONI JOUHKIMAINEN @Jouhkb
Just found out that the guys also took our sanitary bags and sunglasses instead of iPad&wallets wtf . Whats wrong with this people

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Quote:

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MANH NGUYEN @MunMunny
Did that really happen to me? Am I dreaming? Please wake up... Please wake up.

Attention poker players: large sums of money has been stolen out of my room at rio last night.

---

Later, Manh Nguyen explained:

Quote:

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I came to the Rio for the WSOP with my friend Jimmy Chen. He's a PLO cash game grinder. Jimmy and I checked into the Rio on May 27 around 6:30 p.m. We came to the room and dropped our bags off and went to dinner. When we got back to our room a total of $35,000 had been taken out of our bags. We got back to the room around midnight. Luckily we didn't have all of our money in one spot so all of it wasn't taken. It didn't look like they went through any of my other stuff. Nothing else was taken. Room was not messy almost as if they knew to check the backpacks. I called the police and Rio security and filed a report. I find out that there are no security cameras in the Rio hallways, only in the elevators, and that we are just basically screwed.

---

During the 2013 WSOP, poker player Eric Songstegard had $3000 and an iPad stolen from his Rio room, in what appears to have been a mixup involving a second person accidentally being assigned his room, and subsequently stealing his stuff: http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...-from-his-room

Later in 2013, rooms at the EPT Barcelona at the Barcelona Arts hotel were being broken into and laptops had keyloggers/trojans installed. It appears that hotel security was in on it, and Pokerstars helped cover the matter up: http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...-EPT-Barcelona


A few questions remain regarding these thefts:

1) How come the Rio does not have a record of who entered the rooms? That should be in the memory of the keyreading machine in each door, as it was at the Barcelona Arts.

2) Was there a Do Not Disturb sign on the door? Could the maids have done this?

3) Why did Manh Nguyen leave $35k in his backpack unattended, without even putting it in the room safe?

4) Why didn't these thieves go for the wallets?


I do think there is a fair chance that these guys were targeted by Rio staff members who saw them check in, had accomplices follow them in some way, and then entered the room when it appeared the coast was clear.

It's also interesting how BOTH victims had roommates. Is it possible that it wasn't a Rio employee or outside thief? Unlikely, but possible.


These guys should press the Rio HARD for resolution in this matter, as Eric Sonstegard did. They like sweeping things under the rug.

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I don't think it's Rio staff, just some other criminals trying to take advantage.

What kind of keycard is the Rio using?
If it's RFID, well it is easy to pick up your info just by using a scanner.

Remember, the story last year about hackers able to crack locks in hotel rooms?
There is a flaw in the lock mechanism of hotel/motel locks, most of them have upgraded their locks,
but who knows maybe the Rio didn't bother.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/25977...oom_locks.html

If you stay at the Rio, always keep your money on you, don't use the safe in your room either since that can be easily cracked too. Don't leave laptops out in the open. Don't have sex with trans woman hookers.

Maybe you just should stay at a different hotel than the shitty Rio.


:lol2

What the hell is a sanitary bag?

security cams in the hallway?

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Originally Posted by IamGreek

What the hell is a sanitary bag?

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He probably meant sanitary napkins.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

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Originally Posted by IamGreek

What the hell is a sanitary bag?

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He probably meant sanitary napkins.

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That splains everything. Thief was a female obv or victim is a trans woman.

Ref: 35,000 missing. If they flew, It could have been TSA if they had not checked to see if it was there before leaving the room. They said they checked into the RIO, put bags in room and went out to dinner. Could have been gone long before the RIO.
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1. They funds were taken before they got to the Rio.
2. Someone entered the room and took the funds (easy to prove with lock interrogation. - The no video on floors/hallways does not sound right.
3. It's a scam

One problem I have with the "outsider with no help from the Rio" theory is that the perpetrator would have to know exactly which rooms to victimize.

Even if you know that Manh Nguyen had $35k in his backpack, how do you know what room number he's in -- especially on the first night he's there?

Yeah, I suppose you could follow him up there, but how do you know when he's showing up in the first place so you can follow him? How do you follow him in the elevator without him seeing you?

And if you're just breaking into random rooms hoping to find something, how do you avoid running into guests in their rooms and being reported?

This seems like the person knew exactly who to target and how to quickly get in and out.

If this is anything like the EPT Barcelona, there might be shady Rio employees who alert accomplices when people check in on the "poker rate", and then wait for these players to come down to the lobby and go up to their rooms. Perhaps these employees also have ways to wipe evidence of their entry.

If this were just one guy victimized, I might suspect the roommate doing something shady (like handing off his key to an accomplice in the bathroom), but since it happened to two totally unrelated parties, I think there's something going on here.

Scary.

Agree with Druff here ^

Seems like someone working at the Rio has to be involved in one way or another.

How would they know to go in the room right after Manh checked in? You would think they would wait awhile and make sure the room was empty, but they hit it right after he dropped his bags off and went to dinner. So either the perp was tailing him and saw him leaving the room, or he was tipped off from Rio staff that he wasn't in the room at the time. I guess he was gone for almost 6 hours though, so they did have some time.

Def is fishy as hell tho from the Rio.

No cameras in the hallways? Is this standard for most casinos?

You went on a Jihad against Stars for continuing to stick with the hotel in Spain over the EPT.

Why aren't you attacking WSOP over continuing to stick with the RIO when the exact same issue is happening?

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Originally Posted by zealanddonk

You went on a Jihad against Stars for continuing to stick with the hotel in Spain over the EPT.

Why aren't you attacking WSOP over continuing to stick with the RIO when the exact same issue is happening?

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The facts haven't fully come out yet. Also, Stars is a separate company from the Barcelona Arts Hotel. They were choosing to return there (a shady third party site) without any assurances that anything had changed, nor did they make anything right for the victims.

The WSOP can't just "fire" the Rio because they're the same company. The only way they could "quit" the Rio would be to move the tournament to another CET-owned property, where the same could easily happen.

If this turns out to be a situation where employees broke into rooms, then I would demand that the WSOP rectify this and prevent the same from ever occurring again with better security measures. But no way to disassociate from themselves.

An alternate viewpoint:

It is possible that no thefts actually occurred.

What if the first two guys blew their backers' money, and made up this story to explain what happened to the money?

What if the second two guys saw this as an opportunity to do the same, and figured the first story would lend them instant credibility?

I am also wondering why BOTH cases involved WSOP roommates. Rio rooms aren't that expensive. Why room together if you have enough money to take $35k cash of your own to the Rio? I'm bringing this up, because one or both could be a roommate-on-roommate crime.

I'm not accusing anyone of anything here, but you have to look at this from both sides.

Some important questions:

1) Were any of the victims backed by others?

2) Between the time the stuff was left in the room and when it was discovered stolen, were both roommates CONSTANTLY together? Was there any time when they were apart, even if just to visit the bathroom?

3) After the thefts were discovered, was it confirmed that both roommates still had their room keys on them?

4) Were actual police reports filed on the matter? Can these police reports be scanned and posted (with any private info redacted)?

5) Did any of the victims share their room number with anyone between their arrival time and the theft discovery? If so, who?

6) Did any of the victims notice anyone going to the same floor as they did in the elevator when they initially went to their room? If so, where did those people go when they got off? Did they know these people?

7) Who did the victims tell their arrival time to the Rio? Who did they tell that they had a lot of cash on them?

Do we know the whereabouts of naturalbornhustler's gardener at the time of the incidents?

A) How does a publicly traded corporation NOT have cameras on every floor covering every inch of the hotel? Oh yeah, because they are in massive debt and are nitty as fuck. The only place that seems to do this is in AC, and that's only because crime is a HUGE issue there!

B) RE: Druff's alternate theory on the victims potentially lying...sure, its a possibility, but the thing is this shit has happened for almost 4 years now. I recall Jennicide being a victim, so there is precedent there. The only variables to me let are: inside job or someone who is really good at picking locks.

C) WSOPTD just issued a statement: "We take these allegations very seriously (lol) and are meeting with security/hotel management this morning to have a comprehensive discussion. We will report back to everyone soon. Thank you."

D) Casino Hotels really need to start offering loss prevention insurance, like airlines do. I think folks who bring a ton of money to Vegas and the Rio also need to research third parties to take this insurance. No wonder the Rio is charging for a box this year at the cages ($100); this could be a new found revenue stream!

E) Don't stay at the Rio, even for convenience. You'll be lucky to get a buffet voucher when this stuff happens. It's a shithole.

Regarding random breakins...

1) Pretend you are just coming out of the elevator and wait until someone comes out of a room. Knock on the door pretending to be room service. If someone answers, apologize for getting the wrong room. If not break in.

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Originally Posted by blueodum

Regarding random breakins...

1) Pretend you are just coming out of the elevator and wait until someone comes out of a room. Knock on the door pretending to be room service. If someone answers, apologize for getting the wrong room. If not break in.

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2) ?

#2) I sort of combined my two ideas in one.

add the Donkeybomber to the list

Tom is a very nice guy. His new girlfriend is pretty fucking sexy too. The entire table was trying to help him find his shit. A woman said she was going to call the news.

interesting how the tweets leave out all the stuff stolen from his girlfriend. He certainly stacked em to the top with this girl.