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Venetian Casino Robbed of $1.6M in Chips

By Andrew Lu on October 24, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

The Venetian robbery may have been one of the best executed dumb robberies in history. There were no victims, no weapons, and no casino employees were confronted or put in harm's way. And the suspect got away with $1.6 million in chips.

Unfortunately, the suspect now has to figure out a way to convert the chips to cash. And as Las Vegas police believe they have identified the man, the suspect could have a hard time cashing in the chips at the casino or finding a buyer.

The robbery occurred in the early morning hours on October 10. Police say that Akingide Cole of Palmdale, California was the man responsible for the crime and are now actively searching for him, reports The Christian Post.

Authorities say that Cole somehow gained access to a restricted area in the Venetian casino and made away with the $1.6 million in high-denomination casino chips. They did not rule out the possibility of an inside job.

In the meantime, Cole is avoiding the cops and has a pretty thick stack of nearly unusable chips. The Venetian indicated that it keeps a close eye on the high-denomination chips that were stolen, and that only high-rollers typically have access to the chips. As a result, if Cole attempts to return to the Venetian, his chips may be flagged immediately.

The Venetian robbery is just the latest robbery of a valuable object with near zero street value. Earlier this month, criminals robbed the California Mining and Minerals Museum of precious metals. Too bad there aren't too many stores accepting payment in gold nuggets.

Also this month, robbers stole $100 bills bound for the treasury. Unfortunately, these $100 bills featured a new design that won't be available until 2013.

These dumb criminals thought out how to commit the crime to near perfection. They just didn't plan out what to do with the bounty afterwards. Adding insult to injury, prosecutors probably won't consider the non-fungibility of the goods stolen when determining the crooks' penalties.

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