{"id":2588,"date":"2009-11-05T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lasvegasbuffetclub.com\/blog\/?p=2588"},"modified":"2009-11-05T10:26:24","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T15:26:24","slug":"prostitutes-on-track-to-steal-more-than-2-million-from-clients-this-year-by-abigail-goldman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lasvegasbuffetclub.com\/blog\/?p=2588","title":{"rendered":"Prostitutes on track to steal more than $2 million from clients this year By Abigail Goldman"},"content":{"rendered":"\"facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"google_plus\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>

“Their valuables gone, like their ladies of the night”
\n“More than $2 million is likely be stolen in \u201909 in \u2018trick rolls\u2019 in which a prostitute robs a client”
\nBy Abigail Goldman<\/strong><\/p>\n

This post was pulled from The Las Vegas Sun, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rolled<\/a>
Chris Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People in the company of Clark County prostitutes collectively reported having $1.4 million in cash and goods stolen from them during the first nine months of this year \u2014 dupes of a larceny genre better known to police as the \u201ctrick roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

By year\u2019s end, it\u2019s estimated the total reported losses will exceed $2 million \u2014 almost double last year\u2019s total, and probably a fraction of the real amount.<\/p>\n

How many people file police reports, after all, when their prostitutes disappoint?<\/p>\n

Enough, at least, for Metro vice detectives to determine the problem is getting worse, and assign two detectives to trick roll investigations exclusively. They\u2019ve gotten roughly one case every day this year. In 2007 it was more like one a week.<\/p>\n

That increase could have something to do with the economy. Fewer tourists with less money means supply exceeds demand. Prices drop and competition ratchets up for prostitutes, many of whom police say must meet nightly quotas set by pimps. Metro Sgt. Donald Hoier, though, says the problem picked up before the economy fell, simply because Clark County was saturated with sex workers and outlets for illicit entertainment.<\/p>\n

When everybody scrambles for the same pool of money, bad seeds take short cuts.<\/p>\n

Consider the reported losses Hoier reads from a list of cases: $10,000 in cash, casino chips and a laptop; $30,000 in cash and chips; $20,000 Rolex; $6,000 Rolex; $5,000 cash; and \u2014 perhaps the most interesting, a case Hoier can only hint at \u2014 $175,000 in casino chips.<\/p>\n

These are preposterous amounts, which is probably why they were reported in the first place.<\/p>\n

Sometimes these are crimes of opportunity. A watch is left out, a laptop is folded in the corner.<\/p>\n

But there are prostitutes for whom sex is only a pretext to theft, and others who have no intention of sleeping with their clients, Hoier said. They know how to exploit angles and mirrors to see safe codes being punched, while others, Hoier says, actually become good at identifying the tones assigned to each number on the key pads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he\u2019s in the shower,\u201d Hoier says, \u201cshe\u2019s taking everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drugs are slipped into drinks. Clients are escorted to ATMs for payment, only to find their cards have been stolen by someone who surreptitiously saw the pin number. Two women come to one room and run lewd tactical diversion.<\/p>\n

But sometimes it\u2019s just a matter of violence.<\/p>\n

Prostitutes have pulled guns. Pimps, waiting nearby, Hoier says, have beaten people just shy of death.<\/p>\n

All of this is easier to accomplish when the target fits a preferred profile: intoxicated and alone.<\/p>\n

Susan Lopez, founder of the Las Vegas chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, a national group dedicated to sex workers\u2019 rights, said the economy is definitely a factor in the uptick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of transient sex workers who come here because they think it\u2019s going to be more profitable,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s widely felt that \u201cmost of the people who are committing these infractions are pimped women, and women who answer to somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women who steal from their clients give a shamed industry a bad name, Lopez said, much to the frustration of local, independent sex workers who take their occupations, and reputations, seriously.<\/p>\n

At the same time, however, \u201cthe girls kind of feel like it\u2019s the guy\u2019s own stupid fault \u2014 when desperate and drunk people get together, they don\u2019t have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, Hoier says, trick rolls happen everywhere. High- and low-end casinos, on the street when a prostitute brings a client down a dark alley, and outside strip clubs, when dancers go home with clients.<\/p>\n

In one case, a couple having an affair in Las Vegas hired a prostitute. The female client later realized her engagement ring, purchased by her fiancee back home, was stolen.<\/p>\n

In a different case, a woman approached local men in nightclubs, spent weeks getting to know them (and the layouts of their homes), then drugged them before executing high-dollar burglaries.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s often a gap between the theft and the time it\u2019s discovered, which complicates things for police. Even when clients realize right away, prostitutes have vanished down access stairs and out emergency exits, avoiding notice or handing the goods off to someone else.<\/p>\n

Getting people to come forward is another problem. To this end, police carefully explain, misdemeanor crimes, like soliciting a prostitute, only lead to an arrest when they occur in the presence of police. Other trick rolls are never categorized as such, because johns hide their real relationships to the thieves.<\/p>\n

When cases are opened, they often reveal other related crimes. Lately, for example, trick rolls are feeding identity theft. Other times, thieving prostitutes lead vice detectives back to violent pimps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happens more than you\u2019d probably think,\u201d Hoier said. \u201cA lot of women would rather steal from these guys than work as prostitutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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