I just had the oddest experience that I have ever had in Las Vegas. It ended in a use of force incident.

My wife and I were playing Craps at Harrah’s this morning. My wife was standing to my left. We were at the end of the table and a woman walked up to the table on my right and tried to buy in with $25 cash and a slot machine ticket worth $77. The dealer told the woman that tickets were not accepted at the tables, and directed her to the cashier’s cage that was 20 feet away. The woman left the $25 in chips on the table and headed that way.

She returned 10 minutes later, and I pointed out to her that the chips she had left behind were still there. She said “I don’t care about that, it’s chump change,” then put the chips on the field. I was the shooter and rolled a 6. Her money was taken by the dealer. She asked the dealer to place another bet, the dealer asked for money, the woman again tried to use the slot machine ticket. My wife helpfully told her that she needed to use cash. She left. After she was gone, I made a joke: “That’s what happens when you legalize pot.” The entire table laughed, dealers included.

She came back a third time, about 15 minutes later. She stood so close to me that our shoulders were touching, despite the fact that no one else was at our end of the table. I slid my chips to my left, away from her and closer to my wife. It made me nervous. The woman said, pointing to my wife,”She isn’t helping me. I should just punch her.” I told the woman that this would be a bad idea and that she needed to leave. I asked the dealer to call security. I couldn’t leave, because I had about $200 in play. The woman left, and the dealer said, “She is someone else’s problem now.”

You guessed it- she was back 5 minutes later. The stupid ass tried using the slot ticket again. She said, “I don’t have any circle things (meaning chips?) to play with, so I will just take some of his.” She then reached in and grabbed a handful of my chips with her right hand.

I grabbed the offending hand HARD and twisted towards me as I stepped to my right, into her, planting my foot behind her. At the same time, I lifted her arm and pushed. Off balance, she started to fall and I was just starting to finish the move when my wife yelled “stop.” I eased up and let the woman keep her feet. Security was there pretty quickly. They removed her from the property. As they were doing so, she insisted that security get a supervisor and “fully document” the incident. She will be lucky if they don’t have her arrested.

My wife later said she was worried that I would be the one who got in trouble. She also said that she wasn’t sure that I needed to use force. I explained that the woman had already verbally signaled her willingness to get violent and was in the act of committing robbery. What I did was a clear case of the lawful use of force in self defense.

First time I have ever had to use force in my wife’s presence.

Categories: CrimeMe

11 Comments

joe · June 10, 2021 at 5:22 pm

think i would have put her on her ass…

    Divemedic · June 10, 2021 at 5:57 pm

    That was what I was planning. That was why my wife yelled stop. She was scared that I was going to really hurt her. Honestly, I wasn’t consciously planning it, but I think I was about to break her arm.

Borepatch · June 10, 2021 at 9:50 pm

Good on ya.

TechieDude · June 11, 2021 at 8:27 am

Wow.

She was either crazy, or trying to start something.

Dumb move, with those cameras all over. Hopefully she won’t be stalking you.

Kris · June 11, 2021 at 11:50 am

“ After she was gone, I made a joke: “That’s what happens when you legalize pot.” The entire table laughed, dealers included.”

That may answer for her lack of memory.
And it is funny.
But there is more to it, imo.

People seem to be more willing to use Some Sort of Violent Action now, just because. Even when not intoxicated.

Every damn day you see at least 3-5 stories of extreme Criminal VOA Taken that leave me sayin WTF? There wasnt even a interaction.

My past life employment(concert audio) afforded me interaction with MANY if not most that were Always high on something.

True pot heads, were very rarely if ever violent or even threatening. The usual was they would avoid even just simple disagreement and go about just talking to or doing something else.

And to use old terminology, The Downer Crowd was also basicly Zero Problems.

All the Rest of the Intoxicants…That can’t be said.

So lets be clear here, I Do Not Support Legal Weed, or any intoxicants for Recreation, at all. There is absolutely No Benefit to Society or the Individual.
ZERO.

And dont hand me the PTSD shtuff. Sorry Vets, i aint buyin.

Cause if it’s good for you….
then its good for the pissed off pilot flying you to grandma’s.
Ya want a Mushroom poppin pilot flying your family ???
Hell, why aren’t fighter pilots bootin smack, There some damn stress!
How bout a cop trippin his ass off responding to your DV or active shooter call?
The Tractor Trailer Driver doin speedballs, oh wait, DOT had there moment in the 70’s and 80’s with this.

Intoxication IS NOT a solver for a Psychological or a Physical Problem!
Full Stop!
You dont cope by getting f&8$ed up. It aint rocket science

Cause if thats the cure for societies woahs, then yeah, Legalize Every Damn Drug, hell give it away!!
And yes, i am refering to Alcohol also.

That shit has done more damage to society then a Nuke Strike, again, imo.
And alot of it cant even be calculated.
How do you calculate Family and or Personal Destruction?

No…
There is more going on. It’s like a bad movie.
I definately do not have the answers, i am just a schmuck.
But F’d up people, i got a metric shit ton of experience with.

Look, if you wanna goto Mars 24/7/365 go for it.
“Be All You Can Be ! “
But, you can Never Leave your house in that state.

1st Offense If you do and your caught, 5yrs minimum in Fed Prison, GP, Every Day Served, period.

2nd Offense-you have just chosen a different place to die.
And it aint home or the old folks home.

So this is all moot and will never happen, i know.

Back on Topic…
There is more going on today, I think.
The quickness and for seemingly no reason use of Violent Action is just becoming common place…..
and only Selected Politicaly Incorrect people appear to be getting arrested and prosecuted.

Ya know I remember quite clearly MADD’s birth. Now its in all states. Supported by state, local and fed le.

To bad these same….activists dont have that same problem with Criminal VOA. Especially this BS 100% unprovoked crap we are seeing multiple stories of daily across the country.

Bad shit indeed.

2cent

    The other Phil · June 11, 2021 at 7:37 pm

    I am not a drug user. My 2cents is that prohibition in a free society can never work. The war on drugs has been a disaster at every level, leading to reduced civil rights for all, destabilizing countries around the world, and after the post-9/11 crackdown on traditional terror funding now most terror networks are funded by the illegal drug trade. And with all that there’s still no shortage of drugs in the US. In my opinion there’s literally no upside to the war on drugs…it’s all bad stuff with no positive trade offs whatsoever.

    The societal consequences of legal alcohol are probably worse than legal weed, factoring in the cost of drunk driving, liver disease, and drunks putting their girlfriends in the ER. I’m not saying that legal weed is cost-free, just that the costs are probably less that legal alcohol.

    I say legalize it all.

Skeptic · June 11, 2021 at 2:11 pm

The dealer screwed up when he said, “she’s someone else’s problem now.” When she threatened to punch your wife, he should have gotten security to throw her out, no matter where she went. I go to Vegas a lot and something like that normally gets one tossed onto the street toot sweet. Had he done his job, you would have never had to touch her.

Hedge · June 12, 2021 at 9:33 am

While you panhandling bloggers beg for nickels and tool money donations I and many others are making money hand over fist growing legal weed. 2nd year in business and should be closing in on 100k by end of the season. Next year will be over that amount easily. My medicine is bought by some of the most unfortunate souls in this state. It changes their lives in ways you can’t imagine. For example… the youngest girl in Oklahoma (6) could not walk or talk before she was prescribed cannabis. Now she can do both and has an active life with her family. She was literally the youngest person in Oklahoma to get a state id in order to get her meds. That is one example. But you go ahead and keep talking out of your asses. We will keep helping folks and making lot’s of money while you beg for donations.

Use of force was justified imo.

    Divemedic · June 12, 2021 at 12:36 pm

    I am a huge proponent of free markets. I think drugs should be legal. I also think that 90 percent of “weed is medicine” are bullshit snake oil claims that are fraud intended to fool soccer moms into supporting legalization and sell weed “cures” to sick people desperate for a lifeline.

    Remember when cigarettes were good for you?

    So you are making money. So what?

      Paulb · June 12, 2021 at 4:09 pm

      Gotta agree… to a point. Too many kids in my old hometown in MA who can afford heroin because it’s cheaper than beer, and not enough incentive to not shoot up. 1 OD a day on average, and plenty of cases of the same person OD’ing multiple times in a day. Glad I don’t live in my hold hometown. Never imagined I’d see bars start to appear on windows of an expensive suburb.
      I have plenty of shipmates who are looking forward to smoking weed when they retire, because they stopped when they were 18-20 and don’t remember how fucking stupid and shameful it makes you behave. In the meanwhile, we get piss tested because nobody, rightfully, wants to trust a couple hundred million bucks in the hands of a shithead.
      As for the ‘medicinal’ weed claims… that is asinine and everyone knows it. OK, appetite enhancement, THC is pretty good there, but unreliable in every single study without greater quality control in dosing than exists in commercial markets today. If there were medical treatments in mind, we wouldn’t smoke the goddamn medicine and stress our lungs. 5HT-A-type receptor treatments
      like Cyproheptedine are over 20x more effective than THC as an appetite stimulant, and there are multiple studies confirming that… and although it is an antihistimine, it is also mild enough despite the efficacy to be the go-to for kids with cancer, because THC has a Goddamn proven link to Serotonin Syndrome, which, FFS, kids have shit resistance against. So, yeah… a 6-year old with a weed ‘prescription’ is just a kid with anti-science parents getting a shit treatment when better is available.
      Where a chemical pathway exists that THC beneficially provides provable behavioral or somatic benefits, there are virtually always demonstrably better therapeutics available.
      But I mean, WTF do I know. my days as a chemical physiologist are behind me.
      Not to say I oppose the weed entrepreneur. People will get what they want. Sometimes good and hard. But legitimacy is supposed to be a cloak, not a paper-thin veneer.

      The other Phil · June 12, 2021 at 5:47 pm

      The scientific consensus in 1854 was that the Broad Street (London) cholera outbreak was due to dirty air (miasma!), and had nothing to do with dumping raw sewage into the river that everyone was drinking from.

      These are two of the few immutable facts in life: science is never settled, and science is not consensus.

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