Poker Players Robbed of Winnings

[clevfan]

Poker Players Robbed of Winnings


Al Pefley
June 10, 2008 - 5:51PM
cbs12 Miami

Imagine winning a small fortune in a poker tournament, and then being being followed home and robbed at gunpoint. Authorities raided a house in Miami, and made three arrests in a daring armed holdup that happened in Wellington in March.

Two college students had won nearly $25-thousand dollars in a poker tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood. Investigators say the men watched them playing poker, and then got in a car, donned ski-masks and followed them home to Wellington in the wee hours of the morning and shot at them.

"Who could've thought? Who could've imagined? Um, very scary for a parent," said Loren Londner, mother of Brett Maistri who was robbed along with his friend Sean Remz.

Sheriff's detectives say the attackers confronted the two teens at gunpoint at Wellington Trace and Forest Hill Boulevard. One shot was fired. The victims sped off, but were robbed moments later, as they hid in some bushes.
Maistri's mother applauds the efforts of sheriff's detectives. "This has been a difficult day. The kids are reliving a lot of this and they're very happy that these people were caught. It's been very traumatizing for them. They're only 18 years old and never experienced anything like this before and hopefully never will again," Londner said.

She told us her son was not available for comment, and Remz' father said his son had no comment.

Three men are under arrest. Eighteen year old Emmanuel Alexis of North Miami Beach, 18 year old Clinton Ellington Jr. Of Miami, and 18 year old Jahson Linton of Boynton Beach. "They obviously are predators and needed to be off the streets and now we've gotta hope that everything is done just right so they can stay off the streets," Londner told reporters.

"Actually I hope this sort of serves as a lesson, that there are dangers out there, that these kids who are not used to dealing with these kinds of people have to be very savvy and a little more aware."

[clevfan]

3 held in robbery of Wellington pair's $24,000 in poker winnings
By Jerome Burdi & Leon Fooksman

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

11:20 PM EDT, June 10, 2008

WELLINGTON

Robbers were watching when two Wellington college students struck it big at a poker tournament, authorities said.

At least three teenagers followed Brett Maistri and Sean Remz from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino some 50 miles north to their hometown. The robbers used their vehicle to cut the victims off in traffic, pointed guns at them and took their more than $24,000 in winnings.

On Tuesday, more than two months after the March attack, detectives charged three 18-year-olds — Emmanuel Alexis, of North Miami Beach, Jahson Linton, of Boynton Beach, and Clinton Ellington Jr., of Miami — with armed robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm.

"It was a horrible experience," said Maistri's mother, Loren Lodner. "They're relieved. They're happy that the police were able to [make arrests] so fast and efficiently."

Maistri and Remz are the latest targets of robbers going after gambling jackpots.

In November, two men forced their way into the home of a Hollywood couple returning from the Hard Rock and robbed them, police said. A month earlier, four people were robbed in three separate incidents at the Isle of Capri Casino in Pompano Beach. In 2003, a mother of nine was shot and injured after winning $5,900 in a West Palm Beach bingo hall.

Similar attacks have occurred in New Orleans, Milwaukee, Tulsa, Okla., and Las Vegas.

Las Vegas police spokesman Officer Ramon Denby said casino winners there are either escorted home, leave their winnings to pick up at a later time, or get paid by check. It is important to cooperate during a robbery and give up the check or cash, he said.

"After winning, try to keep a low profile," Denby said. "Never have that cold cash with you. That just attracts the wrong kind of people."

At first, Palm Beach sheriff's detectives questioned whether Maistri and Remz were telling the truth about their March 29 attack, investigators said. But once they got surveillance footage and reconstructed the events, they came to believe the victims and three suspects were identified.

Agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and deputies from the Sheriff's Office searched the suspects' homes on Tuesday and made the arrests.

Investigators believe the robbers watched Maistri and Remz while they played in the tournament. After the two cashed out, casino security personnel escorted them to their cars. Detectives said the suspects followed the winners north to Wellington.

At the intersection of Wellington Trace and Forest Hill Boulevard, Maistri and Remz told authorities that two men in ski masks cut them off and pointed handguns at them. At least one shot was fired. The victims managed to drive off to Maistri's home but the robbers followed them.

Maistri hid in the bushes but the robbers caught up with Remz, and took more than $3,000. They stole the rest of the winnings, more than $19,000, from one of the cars.

Gary Bitner, spokesman for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said winners have the option to take their winnings in check form but security does not escort winners off tribal land.

"With regard to security at the Hard Rock, this is not a place where people get away with things," he said. "There are nearly 700 cameras everywhere."

Bitner declined to comment on details of the robbery.

Lodner said both teens enjoy playing poker and had never previously won as much money as they did the night of the robbery. Lodner said her son, a freshman, was so disturbed by the incident that he was unable to finish his semester at college.

"We thank God they're alive, it could have been a very different ending," she said.

The teens enjoy poker rather than other forms of gambling, she said.

"They won't play a lot of things because they are based on chance," Lodner said. "They're really good kids. They definitely worked for [the winnings]."