Smarts apparently weren’t in the cards for 24-year-old Michael Belton, a wannabe high roller who pleaded guilty last week to robbery and conspiracy charges for an “idiotic†attempt to steal from Las Vegas’s Bellagio casino. Click below to find out more.
Belton’s plan sounds like something out of Huckleberry Finn: police say he and his Tom Sawyer, known only as “Carlos,†put on elaborate disguises – really high tech sunglasses and black wigs – and entered the Bellagio with pepper spray late one night in May, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
The pair allegedly planned to roll into the high-stakes area of the casino, spray the dealer, and take off into the night with as many poker chips as possible.
From there, they would retreat to the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino hotel, whence another Carlos – Carlos Rodriguez – claiming to be a high roller, would collect and then trade in the chips for cold, hard cash supposed to be split three ways.
Genius, right?
Well, it did seem to work… at first.
“I was walking up to the table and it was all just a blur,†Belton told a local ABC affiliate in a jailhouse interview.
Blurry-eyed or not, Belton managed to gather up 23 $5,000 chips, worth $115,000, according to a police report.
He and Carlos then attempted to scram, but Belton was tackled by three people, his chips cascading onto the floor.
