Bogus Guards Steal $213,000 From Casino

Talk about bluffing.

Gardena’s card clubs attract plenty of card sharks, but police are searching for one beguiling gambler who dressed up as an armored car guard and strolled away from the Normandie Casino with $213,000, authorities said.

The club’s workers, who handed the impostor two bags of cash and checks Friday afternoon, were stunned when the actual guard from Loomis Armored Inc. pulled up to the club about 20 minutes later on his routine rounds, said James D. Martin, the club’s security chief.

“If you lost that kind of money, you’d be shocked,” he said.

Now police are searching for the impostor, who wore a gun belt with a revolver, and another uniformed man, who waited outside the card club in a van with a red Loomis logo.

The smoke-filled Rosecrans Avenue card club, which touts itself as “Vegas in L.A.,” employs about 50 security guards, who keep a watchful eye on the activity in the gambling hall. As gamblers inside play pai gow poker and five card draw over the clattering of casino chips, two workers stand guard outside the club when deliveries or pickups are made, Martin said.

Although the security guards did not recognize the impostor, they probably assumed he was new to the job, Martin said. The man was wearing a Loomis uniform with a company logo on the left breast pocket.

In retrospect, workers were relieved that the man did not threaten or shoot anyone in the club, he said.

“The security guards are supposed to expect things, but it’s easier (that the thief) did it that way instead of coming in here and pointing a gun,” Martin said.

One indication the pickup was bogus, said a Loomis spokeswoman who asked that her name not be used, was the fact that the thieves used a van with a Loomis logo. The Los Angeles company uses only armored trucks when making pickups and deliveries and has no vans in its fleet, she said.

Crimes by thieves posing as guards are an occasional embarrassment. Gardena Police Sgt. Robert Michaelsen was uncertain whether this one was an inside job. It would not have taken an employee to pull off the job, he said, because anyone could have kept an eye on the location to “tell when the deliveries normally come.”

The Loomis spokeswoman said the company has accounted for all its uniforms. The company seeks to prevent impostors by asking clients to check badges and signatures and by frequently changing delivery schedules.

“Loomis is as much a victim as the card club is, because (the thieves) took our name,” the spokeswoman said.

Police say they do have a few leads in the case.

The incident occurred about 3:20 p.m. when the van pulled up to the card club, Michaelsen said.

While one man waited in the driver’s seat, another carrying a black canvas bag entered the club through a side door. A security guard notified club employees that the Loomis guard had arrived, and an employee allowed him into the cashier’s office, Michaelsen said.

The employee handed the impostor two bags of cash and checks, which he placed in the canvas bag. The impostor signed for the money, then left through the same side entrance with $139,145 in cash and almost $75,000 in checks.

Then the two men drove away.

Martin said the casino is insured against theft.