If a $200,000+ cash theft at a racetrack isn't chicken feed, I'll get an early start on eating my mutuel tickets for the year. You have only to read the account of the robbery in today's NYT to learn that in 1969 and 1970 thieves made off with a total of $2 million in armored car thefts from the track. Wait too long, and crime hardly pays.
That there is even $200,000 in cash at the track is amazing to me. I've been going to the races since 1968 and remember when there were Pinkerton guards with guns who patrolled the area. Most wagers these days are made through online wagering accounts, and are basically electronic transactions from all over the country, as well as what might be wagered at the track itself.
It is reported the workers were emptying cash from "gaming machines" when they were relieved of the take by two surgically masked gunman who made off with the money. An inside job is naturally suspected.
I am familiar with NYRA tracks and a gaming machine would constitute a voucher dispensing machine that cash can be fed into and a voucher dispensed that allows self-service betting to occur at other betting machines.
When the third floor at Belmont was open, the entire floor had no manned windows. It was all self-service wagering. Last year, even the third floor was closed, the machines were removed, and you had to be on the first or second floors to wager.
Aqueduct and Belmont on good days already look like the patrons have stayed home due to coronavirus fears. I can only imagine what Aqueduct looks like these days.
And because of the adjacent casino at Aqueduct, and late night simulcasting wagering from the West Coast and even Australia, there are still patrons at the track long after the last live race is run, typically no later than 6:00 P.M. at this time of the year.
Quoted in the story are patrons who claim that there is little to no security at the facilities, even when there are the most people there for live racing. I've complained about the beer/cooler crowd that descends, but to no avail. I don't go that often downstate, and the beer swillers tend to put themselves off in a corner. These facilities are huge, and when empty, actually resemble dark alleys It is not safe to be there.
Saturday at Aqueduct probably had what might be described as a "decent" crowd since there were several graded stake races, and one with points toward gaining entry to the Kentucky Derby. Attendance figures are rarely printed because admission is free to Aqueduct and there is a direct link to the adjacent casino. Patrons can go back and forth.
The inside job theory is gaining credibility because it is reported some employees called in sick on Saturday. No matter. The take was paltry and pales to what an armored car theft would have been decades ago. But it did beat the Pick Six, which paid $10,121 on Saturday.
I made the joke that since the NYT reporter Corey Kilgannon late last year informed us that Murph the Surf was still alive in Florida, Murph might have boarded Jet Blue and flown up for the deed.
But Murph of Star of India heist fame is now a reformed burglar who gives motivational speeches. Not even cash at today's racetracks could tempt him these days.
My guess is there will arrests very soon.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
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