Henderson, Nevada police have arrested a man who they believe was one of two people who raided poker-pro Chad Power's house in February. The thieves dragged a safe full of cash and poker chips from Power's residence but failed to cover their faces. This fact was recorded by Power's home security system.
Chad Power is a poker pro with around $610k in tournament earnings, including a few significant cashes at the WSOP.
Brock Brewer, the alleged theif, was entered into the Clark County Detention Center records on Tuesday. Police are charging Brewer with grand theft, conspiracy, and home invasion.
At this stage, the allegations are unproved by trial in court. However, two factors make the accusations seem eminently plausible. The first is that, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Brewer is a known gang member with a history of similar crimes. The second factor is that home security footage in which a man very like Brewer in appearance is visible.
The perpetrators wore medical masks during their heist. But they pulled the masks down for the heavy work of dragging away their booty. At the time, mask mandates still in force across Nevada made this scenario all the more ironic.
A chip and some change
On February 10, 2021, Chad Power's phone went off with an alert from his home security system. By opening the alert, Power was able to watch from afar as two men walked out of his house with his safe on their shoulders.
According to the police, Power did not recognize either man. He could be sure of this fact because, as the police put it, "both suspects had lowered or removed their facemasks at this point and their faces were visible."
The safe was an impressive haul for the two criminals. Inside, according to Power, there was $750,000 in cash. Most of it was in $100 bills, neatly wrapped into bricks of $50k each. There was also a further $250,000 worth of high-value poker chips.
The detectives had a theory about what happened.
Most gamblers who get robbed are scoped out at casinos or private games. When the perps have confirmed that the victim is a high-roller who most likely keeps large amounts of cash on hand, they follow the player home. With the address confirmed, it becomes a waiting game. The perps waited until the player heads back out to another game. Then they head into the house and scoop up whatever valuables they can find.
With this theory in mind, the police ran a check on similar crimes. One of the results that came up was a 2006 case where Brewer had followed a poker player home, robbed them, and walked away with $15,000. Thanks to the mask slip-up, police were able to match the perpetrator's face to Power's surveillance footage. That was enough for an arrest warrant.
Time to get out of the Dodge
Where the big heist of last year involved cross-border flight and a multi-national manhunt, this robbery ended a little more domestically.
When they went to put their boots through Brewer's door, the fuzz found him driving a brand new Dodge Charger Hellcat. In his garage was a Maserati. The down payments on the two cars came to $90,000. He made the down payments in cash within a few days of the robbery.
Both cars were registered to his mother. A third, unspecified vehicle linked to Brewer is sitting in impound with the police right now too. Things are not looking good for him.
However, Brewer will have an opportunity to explain all this away before a judge for his trial's preliminary hearings on June 1, 2021.
Featured image source: Flickr by WPT
