Woman suspected of $750K theft last year from Sam’s Town was arrested

A woman was taken into custody earlier this month on suspicion of involvement in a scheme to steal $750,000 from Sam’s Town last summer.

Someone posing as a casino employee persuaded a cashier’s cage supervisor to drive a box with the cash to 36-year-old Rosa Barria at a restaurant at around 3 a.m. June 8, 2023, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.

Barria, who told police a man paid her $300 to pick up the box and that she didn’t know what was in the box until after picking it up, was arrested Aug. 2 on suspicion of felony theft.

Around 1 a.m. on the day of the theft, the cage supervisor received a call on one of the casino’s landline phones from someone claiming to be the IT director at Sam’s Town, according to Metro’s report.

The caller, who went by the name “Anthony Adam,” told the cage supervisor that money was needed shortly to pay for a delivery from UPS. “Adam” also told the cage supervisor that her direct boss would be contacting her about the payment, and then the cage supervisor started receiving texts from someone she thought was her boss, the report said.

While on the phone with “Adam,” the cage supervisor gathered “several large bundles of money” from an unlocked drawer and put them in a box. The cage supervisor then left the casino with the cash in her pickup around 2:45 a.m., according to the report.

“Adam” had instructed the cage supervisor to drive to a location of a Mexican restaurant in North Las Vegas. The cage supervisor arrived at the location around 3:30 a.m. and was approached by a woman and a man. She handed over the cash to the woman, whom she thought was a Sam’s Town attorney.

The pair with the cash departed on foot, and the cage supervisor drove back to the casino thinking that she might have fallen for a scam, the report said. The cage supervisor told casino authorities what happened, and Sam’s Town security called Las Vegas police about it around 5 a.m.

Las Vegas police didn’t identify those who walked away with the cash until a similar scam occurred in September 2023, according to police. This time, the cash was brought in a box to an employee of a “mini mart.”

The mini-mart employee, who was arrested, told police that a relative named Rose Barria and a man contacted her on the night of Sept. 22, 2023, about picking up a box.

Since the mini-mart employee was at work, Barria arranged for the box, which contained $34,000, to be dropped off at the mini-mart, the employee said. After receiving the box, the mini-mart employee had it delivered to a North Las Vegas house.

Police asked the mini-mart employee where Baria lived, and the employee said she lived at that North Las Vegas house. Police also showed images of the pair, who left the Mexican restaurant on foot, to the mini-mart employee, and the employee “immediately recognized” the woman as Barria, according to the report.

On Aug. 2, Las Vegas police went to the North Las Vegas house and saw Barria entering a car at the home. Then police pulled the car over and detained Barria.

Barria told police after being detained that she picked up a box from a woman driving a pickup truck on June 8, 2023. She said she initially did not know what was in the box. She also told police that a man had asked her to pick up the box and paid her $300 for doing so.

Barria, who remains in the Clark County Detention Center on $30,000 bail, is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 20.

Contact Peter Breen at pbreen@reviewjournal.com. Follow @breenreports on X.