A tourist staying at Aria Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip told police he found $1,200 missing from his wallet and discovered more than $32,000 in unauthorized digital transactions after spending the early morning hours of February 24 with two women he'd met at a nightclub. The case has now resulted in felony charges against both suspects, with one due in court next month and the other still wanted by police.
According to the New York Post, the tourist met a woman at Marquee Nightclub inside The Cosmopolitan before the two headed back to his room at Aria, a timeline detailed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Surveillance footage showed a second woman later joined them in the room, and the tourist said the group went to the hot tub, drank a bottle of wine, and eventually agreed to go to sleep. He said he'd consumed about 10 mixed drinks that night and had no recollection of how he ended up back in his room.
Digital Alerts Piled Up While He Slept
The tourist woke around 9 a.m. and found his wallet open with $1,200 in cash missing. But that turned out to be the smallest piece of the loss. He also discovered Apple Pay notifications for $9,113 in unauthorized transactions and Wells Fargo alerts for another $23,400 sent while he was asleep or incapacitated, bringing the digital total to $32,513. Surveillance video showed the two women leaving Aria around 6:34 a.m. and departing by cab, according to the report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The tourist said he did not believe the women were sex workers and denied any agreement to pay them for sexual acts.
Police released a flyer with surveillance images of the two women in March, though the images alone weren't enough to identify them. The break came when an investigator with MGM Resorts International matched the women's faces to recipient names on the unauthorized wire transfers, according to the same report — the transfers had been sent directly to accounts bearing the suspects' real names, Linda Green and Brenae Sandusky. Because Aria and The Cosmopolitan are both operated by MGM Resorts International, which took over operational control of The Cosmopolitan in 2022, corporate security teams were able to coordinate surveillance tracking across the two connected properties, the outlet reported.
Charges Filed, One Suspect Still At Large
Prosecutors formally filed charges against both women in August. Sandusky faces a felony theft charge involving property valued between $25,000 and $100,000, while Green faces a felony grand-larceny charge involving property valued between $5,000 and $25,000, per the Review-Journal's reporting. Green is scheduled to appear in a Las Vegas court on October 6, while an active arrest warrant remains open for Sandusky.
Under Nevada Revised Statutes Section 205.0835, theft of property valued between $25,000 and $100,000 is a Category B felony carrying a prison sentence of one to ten years and fines up to $10,000, according to Justia Law. Grand larceny involving property valued between $5,000 and $25,000, the charge Green faces, is a Category C felony under Nevada Revised Statutes Section 205.222, punishable by one to five years in state prison and fines up to $10,000. Nevada law sets a much lower bar for a felony to kick in at all — just $1,200 separates misdemeanor petty larceny from felony grand larceny under NRS 205.220.
Part of a Broader Pattern on the Strip
Law enforcement agencies and researchers classify hotel room thefts targeting intoxicated resort guests after socializing as “trick rolls,” a crime category regularly investigated along the Las Vegas Strip, according to a study from Arizona State University that analyzed hundreds of such cases handled by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. This case illustrates how the pattern has evolved from physical cash and jewelry snatching toward electronic fraud — while the tourist lost $1,200 in physical cash, more than 96% of the total loss came through digital transactions sent while he was asleep or incapacitated.
The case echoes an incident Hoodline covered involving Wynn Encore in October 2024, when two women were arrested after a hotel guest reported $100,000 in stolen luxury watches and an unauthorized $1,200 digital payment made while he slept. Both suspects in that earlier case also faced grand larceny and burglary charges, suggesting multi-suspect hotel room thefts involving digital transfers remain an ongoing concern in Las Vegas.
