auCL-Ed
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26 August 2015 - 1:14am

Great read: The Zero-Armed Bandit

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I came across this story about a criminal case from back in 1980 that happened at Harvey's Wagon Wheel Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Its a great read, so if you have 10 minutes or so to spare, check it out.

"I don't think it belongs here." Such was the assessment of Bob Vinson, the graveyard shift supervisor at Harvey's Wagon Wheel Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The "here" Vinson referred to was a nook just outside the telephone equipment room in the employees-only portion of the second floor of the hotel. The "it" was a curious piece of equipment of unknown origin loitering conspicuously in the cramped side room. It was a metallic gray box about the size of a desk, with a smaller box attached on top near the rear right corner. The front face of the smaller box was an incomprehensible control panel occupied by 28 metal toggle switches in five neat rows, each labeled with a numbered sticker. All of these switches were situated in the down position except for #23, which was toggled up-an oddly ominous asymmetry.

Click this for the rest of a great story involving crooks, bomb threats, extortion, a helicopter and more.

the-zero-armed-bandit.jpg

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usbarbadosslim93 Recently online: 4 min ago
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26 August 2015 - 3:51pm
#1

Wow, that is a hell of a story. I have to say that is the thing movies are made of. It seems like the plot was pretty well constructed and had a decent chance of succeeding, had the kids remembered to have bought a battery for the strobe.

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28 August 2015 - 12:44am
#2

They just needed to give clearer instructions so the helicopter pilot would have gone in the right direction. Had they done that, they might have gotten away with it. Although the police did have the 2nd man hidden in the helicopter so it could have gotten ugly if they had tried to steal it.

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4 September 2015 - 11:34pm
#3

I FINALLY read this, and I must be a slow reader, because that one took me a while. lol But it was worth every minute - what an interesting story!

I found it funny and so typical that surrounding casinos were actually making bets on if and when the bomb would explode. I was surprised that it actually did cause such an explosion - I expected a different result. They sure were tricking even getting that in the room - that would not fly these days.

What a sad, pitiful, roller coaster ride of a life the father led until his death. And I didn't feel one bit sorry for him reading how he mistreated his sons.

I love reading bits of history like that, and I am surprised we didn't hear more about this story - makes me wonder how many other little pieces of history we are not aware of. Like they said at the end of the story, this one was not as well-publicized, because "No one died."

Thanks for sharing, CL-Ed! 🙂

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4 September 2015 - 11:55pm
#4

Like slim, I'm surprised no-one has made a movie out of it. It has all the ingredients for a good one.

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5 September 2015 - 2:48pm
#5
CL-Ed wrote:

Like slim, I'm surprised no-one has made a movie out of it. It has all the ingredients for a good one.

I agree! Or at the very least one of those "true crime" shows. Would be captivating. Maybe one of us should take the idea and run and make our first million? Just Google "How to write a screenplay." haha! 😉

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6 September 2015 - 11:12pm
#6
hope777 wrote:

I agree! Or at the very least one of those "true crime" shows. Would be captivating. Maybe one of us should take the idea and run and make our first million? Just Google "How to write a screenplay." haha! 😉

Lol, I could see that being a lot of fun! The Zero Armed Bandit, starring CL-Ed as Big John.

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7 September 2015 - 4:23am
#7

Hah I don't think so. My acting would be more wooden than a plank of 2 by 4.

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14 September 2015 - 12:12am
#8

Too funny! 😜