Robbery/Complicity/Drug Possession

Well, this situation took a long time to do paperwork. Got dispatched to the local mall where a loss prevention officer was "struggling" with a shoplifter. I was a long way away, but when I got there, 2 other units were already there and pulling people out of a car. I pulled the 4th (last) person out of the car and handcuffed him and put him in my car. i then searched the car and came out with a ziploc bag of pot (about 45 grams). We talked with the security guy and witnesses who told us they were all inside the store together and selected a bunch of stuff, giving it to 1 individual to try to steal. When security attempted to stop him, he handed him an id of someone else and then they started to struggle physically trying to get away. The other 3 took off, jumped into a car and tried to pick up the fourth subject as he was running from the security guy. Officers were all over the car as they tried to pick him up, easily taking them all into custody. Come to find out they were all 17. So, 1 got charged with robbery, 3 complicity to robbery, and 2 of them were charged with the marihuana possession (though a lot of it, still a minor misdemeanor...like getting a ticket). The 1 female we released to her mother (because it seemed like she gave a crap about what was going on). The other 3 either lied to us the whole time or acted like they were 13...so they went to a juvenile detention facility. One of these kids had a lawyer that he knew the number too stating "hey, it's (so and so), I'm in the same thing as last time..only not quite as bad." Lovely when a 17 year old is in enough trouble that he has a lawyer on retainer.

Las Vegas food

Well, as promised, I have to blog about the food in Vegas. Overall very good. I didn't eat anywhere that I didn't think was good. Some was definitely expensive. The first place we ate was dinner at the Carnival World Buffet in the Rio. It is known as the largest buffet in Vegas. It was. It took about 5-10 minutes walking without a plate observing all the food down the entire back wall plus another large island that held the magical desserts. After taking the time to scope out food, I went for a little from a lot of different styles. I had prime rib, crab legs on ice, swordfish, and various other filler things. It was very good, but pricey for dinner. I think it was about $26 per person for the dinner buffet. We kind of went through dinner quickly though as I was ready for bed around 8 pm there (11pm here) because I was on about 1.5 hrs of sleep on the plane after working third shift and going straight to the airport. I was falling asleep in my booth. The next day Kate was off to a conference and I went to the Sao Paulo cafe in the Rio for breakfast before catching the shuttle. I had banana pancakes which were tremendous. They were a diabetic coma on a plate. Drizzled caramel, sugary walnuts, and whipped cream topped this delight. Not too bad price. Think I paid $12 after tip, and it was a filling meal. Dinner was hors doeuvres which were provided by Kate's work with some nasty green cheese. Otherwise not too bad. Ate breakfast at the Carnival World Buffet (brunch) for $14. Still tons of food to choose from, but I didn't find anything impressive that I couldn't have gotten at some other buffet outside of Vegas. I met up with Kate and some of her work people for lunch. We went to the Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay's restaurant). They only would provide a brunch menu (though it was later in the day) due to it being the weekend. However, they had burgers, salads, breakfasty items, and other things. I got the pork tenderloin sandwich which was cooked medium and brought to room temperature before serving. It was very good. Their burgers looked very good (couple of people had them). Price was not as bad as I thought it would be (probably because it was lunch time). Went to a no name cafe and had a prosciutto sandwich the next day that was over the counter deli like. Nothing special. Dinner was with Kate and a couple of her work people. We made reservations at the Voodoo Lounge after hearing very good things. The very good things were true. You start your journey going up a private elevator made of glass looking out on the strip to the 50th floor (the top of the Rio). The walls are very dark with black light drawings all over and the carpet to match. Very voodoo. As we were being sat at our table we all noticed in unison the walls of the dining area were glass and had a fantastic view of the lights of Vegas. The menu was extremely pricey ($35-60) each before drinks. Kate had a $12 mojito. I had a very good cajun steak that was done perfectly. We then stepped up to the 51st floor where they have a club like area with bar and outdoor patio with colored lights in the floor and on the railings. It is known as the best view in Vegas. Again, it was. Because the Rio is set off the strip a little, you could get a fantastic view of all of the strip. The lights were awesome. We went back up another day to take pictures as we didn't have a camera with us. The pictures just cant do justice at all. It was awesome. That was pretty much it for food. Other small snacks during the day, but not worth mentioning. Food was good though. It was very cool seeing all the famous restaurants (Mesa Grill, Spago, etc.)

Side Note: Wolfgang Puck has far too many restaurants in Vegas. It seemed as if he had at least 1 restaurant in every major hotel. I'm a Wolfgang fan, but come on dude...enough is enough. Spread the love around the country a little more.

Las Vegas 1-2008

Well, the trip was a blast. Lost an arm and a leg, but had fun in the process. I probably walked 20 miles walking up and down the strip every day. The weather was in the mid 50's, so a long sleeve t-shirt and pants did me just fine. I enjoyed the whole thing quite a bit. I will wait to talk about the food in a second post, as it was a major and good part of the place. My favorite casino from the outside was definitely New York New York. My favorite inside was Caesar's Palace. The skyline of New York New York was just amazing along with the roller coaster that intertwines it. Caesar's was just beautiful architecture and the ceilings were all painted like sky with many large fountains inside and the feeling that you were in a small village when shopping around. The Eiffel tower was pretty cool, but I did not go up in it ($). I believe I went in every major casino on the main part of the strip. We did not however, ever get down to Fremont Street for various reasons. That is the one thing I wish we could have done, but didn't. Kate was in meetings all day every day, so I was left alone to enjoy walking the strip (which I did all day long every day). Paris was also very nice inside. MGM Grand didn't impress me too much except for the giant lion outside. The Bellagio was very classy and the fountain show was top notch (especially after dark {night and day difference [haha]}). The Luxor had a very cool entrance, but once you got to the actual casino floor, it was nothing to speak of. The Venetian was cool with the river inside, but I found it much the same as Caesar's (don't know who copied who), and I enjoyed Caesar's more. Everywhere you walked there was porn on the streets. It was in little news stand things and the later in the day it was the more guys there were trying to hand you flyers for call girls. It wasn't too bad during the noonish hour, but in the evening, they were everywhere. We walked all the way to Circus Circus, and the atmosphere went downhill the further we got away from the main part of the strip, so we never made it to the stratosphere either. Though I saw quite a few of the free shows that were 5 minutes long, we only went to on major show that you had to by tickets for (due to Kate's tight work schedule). We saw Penn and Teller who were amazing. They are very funny and their tricks and superbly done. I also got both their autographs after the show on my ticket (yeah!!). We stayed in the Rio which was very nice, though off the strip a little. They provided a free shuttle to the main strip, which I used endlessly. Because of Kate's work and conference, we were getting free drinks every night, so the alcohol bill total consisted of 2 beers we bought at a restaurant. Not too shabby. It was a wonderful trip with good weather, lots of fun things to do, and lots of fun things to see. The mountains in the background topped it all off too. We took about 150 pictures, though none can do justice to the real thing.

Going to Vegas

Well, for those of you who are still checking my blog (sorry it's been awhile, but nothing realy to report) I am going to Las Vegas very soon. I will be sure to give you a full report hopefully with some pictures. We are staying in the Rio. I plan to gamble a little, but I will have a lot of time to myself to explore while Kate is in meetings. Christmas was good. Lots of people around for the holidays. I, as usual, worked all the holidays, but was still able to see everyone. I hope to post more soon, so I hope you all still have faith in checking this.