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Hidden Safe Discovered in South Lake Tahoe

Mben

No Deposit Forum Administrator
Staff member
An old run down casino, an old safe discovered and a murder that has not been solved for years sounds like the making for a movie but this is a true story happening in South Lake Tahoe.Bill's Casino was being torn down so new stores and restaurants can be built in it's place. About a week and half ago, the workers who were tearing the building down found a 3 foot tall safe hidden within a wall.  The man who owned the building back in the 60's was killed in a car bombing and the case has never been solved. Was that his safe hidden in the second story wall? No one knows yet because the safe has not been cracked yet and it's been almost 2 weeks since the discovery. People are guessing at what might be in it such as gold bricks, important papers, mob related items? It's anyone's guess.Oprah Winfrey even wants in on this story because her network asked if they could do a show and if they could have a shot at cracking the safe with another safecrackerThe current property owner just wants this mystery solved so he can get on with his building projects. The safe is said to look like someone in the past tried to break into it unsuccessfully and that they are many compartments inside of it.It is scheduled to be cracked next week after Labor Day. 
 

omeg

NEW MEMBER
I love this kind of stuff.What in the world could be in there??Thanks for posting Mben.I'll be following the story for sure.                                                                                          Pam
 

omeg

NEW MEMBER
Sam Cohen FOX40 News 9:31 a.m. PDT , August 30, 2011   SOUTH LAKE TAHOE The mystery of a casino safe will be opened after <a href="http://www.fox40.com/topic/career-workplace/labor-day-EVFES000025.topic" title="Labor Day">Labor Day </a>. After abandoning an idea to open the locked safe with a blowtorch, owners of the former Bills Casino in South Lake Tahoe will have a locksmith open it.Crews demolishing the former Bills Lake Tahoe Casino found a large, locked safe. The son of the current owner of the property, attorney Mike Laub, says it appears someone has tried to break into the safe before, unsuccessfully. He also says the Major Safe looks like it has multiple compartments inside.<a href="http://www.fox40.com/services/site/registration/show-profile.register?logout=true" >Be the first to know! Sign up for FOX40 breaking news alerts. </a> The safe was found hidden behind sheetrock, adding to the mystery of what might be inside.<img class="hudPhoto" src="http://media.trb.com/media/photo/2011-08/346382480-29135341.jpg" alt="346382480-29135341" width="301" height="401" />According to Wikipedia, Bills was opened in 1987 by Harrahs and was named for Bill Harrah. It closed in January 2010, and sold to Laub. The site was originally a casino called Barneys from the late 1960s until 1987. The safe was reportedly found in an older portion of the building, but it is not known from which owner/operator it would have come from.We were originally told the current owners wanted to bring in a blowtorch and get the safe open, however after further consultation, Laub has decided not to use fire to open the safe. He said there were concerns about burning whatever was inside the safe with the blowtorch before anyone could see it.Jordan Laub, the owners son, posted on Reddit, saying [W]e have postponed it until labor day after burningman... don't fret anyone you won't miss anything.
 
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tking1

WELL KNOWN MEMBER
Hey that would be a great no deposit forum contest called Whats in the safe. Guess the value of the contents and the person closest to the value wins.
 

Mben

No Deposit Forum Administrator
Staff member
Has anyone heard or read what was found in the safe, if they happened to have opened it after Labor Day like they were planning?I googled and didn't find anything new about it.
 

rob922

WELL KNOWN MEMBER
Local media denied access to opening of safe at old Bills Casino "
Posted by admin in News on September 14th, 2011 | no responses "
By Linda Fine Conaboy"
"
Oprah Winfrey Network has reportedly been given exclusive media rights to witness the opening of the safe found at the old Bills Casino in Stateline."
"
Lake Tahoe News was at the casino Tuesday at 2pm the time Douglas County sheriffs Sgt. Jim Halsey had said the safe would be cracked."
"
Instead, a construction worker said Oprahs people would be allowed in when they arrived, but he would not let this reporter in."
"
Several calls to Mike Laub, the current owner of the property, about this new development have gone unanswered. So, what he might have been paid to keep the news away from local and other media is not known, nor is it known if the safe was opened or if it was taken elsewhere."
"
The construction worker told LTN the contents of the safe would be revealed in January when the results of the filming would be disclosed."
"
Laub had brought in other locksmiths to try to open the safe, but all were unsuccessful."
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The safe was discovered during the major remodel of Bills Casino. (A CVS and Dottys casino will be the two anchors.) Previous owners Harrahs Entertainment did not know about the safe that was discovered in the walls of the building, under a stairway."
"
Before it was Bills the site was Barneys Casino. According to authorities, the safe could be linked to the 1968 murder of the old Barneys proprietor, Richard Chartrand."
"
Because Chartrand was killed in 1968 in a spectacular car bombing as he departed his home in the Skyland neighborhood, and because the killing has never been solved, the buzz is this may have been a mob-style murder. Rumors have it that there is a great deal of money still missing, leaving investigators wondering if it could be stashed in the newly-discovered safe."
"
 

Mben

No Deposit Forum Administrator
Staff member
rob922 wrote: The construction worker told LTN the contents of the safe would be revealed in January when the results of the filming would be disclosed. 
And now we wait till January ......... UGH! :shoes:Thanks for the update, rob922!-- Edited by Mben on Thursday 15th of September 2011 12:51:17 PM
 

helwin

WELL KNOWN MEMBER
My husband says Chartrand was from Fresno. Friend was his bodyguard. Used to have a crap game here .Claims he was killed because he was skimming from the business and his partner. I should ask my mom and brother if they heard anything, next time I talk to them, they live up there.'
 

Mben

No Deposit Forum Administrator
Staff member
PhillipR wrote: anything on this?
I found this but look at the date. The date of the update is 4 days after the story broke on 9/15/11. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TahoeSouth?ref=stream"><img class="-cx-PRIVATE-uiSquareImage__root profilePic -cx-PRIVATE-uiSquareImage__large img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/157991_22501904060_294091774_q.jpg" style="width:50px;height:50px;" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/TahoeSouth/posts/291177594231089" title="Report/Mark as Spam"></a><em class="mrs img sp_6y1syi sx_3efcd2" style="margin-right:5px;background-image:url(http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yz/r/Euzj3HBEdgU.png);height:14px;width:12px;margin-top:4px;vertical-align:top;background-position:-696px -35px;">   Visit Lake Tahoe South · 104,433 like this <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TahoeSouth/posts/291177594231089"><abbr style="border-bottom-style:none;" title="Monday, September 19, 2011 at 9:25am">September 19, 2011 at 9:25am</abbr></a>  · <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TahoeSouth/posts/291177594231089" title="Public"><em class="lock img sp_49mvwd sx_134768" style="background-image:url(http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yf/r/7vvZijxucyH.png);height:12px;width:12px;margin-bottom:-5px;vertical-align:top;margin-top:2px;background-position:-227px -33px;"></a> <ul class="uiList uiStream uiStreamHomepage translateParent uiStreamRedesign uiStreamLargeHeadline" style="list-style-type:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:14px;text-align:left;"><li class="uiUnifiedStory uiStreamStory genericStreamStory aid_22501904060 uiListItem uiListLight uiListVerticalItemBorder" style="padding:0px;border:0px solid #e9e9e9;margin-top:-6px;">Update: the safe found at Bill's Casino has been opened; however, still no answer about its contents. Nothing of substance for us inside, and the contents are being kept a secret until the Oprah Winfrey show airs in a month or so, wrote Sgt. Jim Halsey in an e-mail. No link to unsolved murder case from the 60s so any new guesses as to what they found? We'll keep you posted on an air-date. </h6><a href="http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20110915/NEWS/110919916/1056&parentprofile=1056" ><img class="shareMediaPhoto img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" style="height:90px;width:90px;background-image:url(http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBgylsgefOngu78&w=90&h=90&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tahoedailytribune.com%2Fapps%2Fpbcsi.dll%2Fbilde%3FSite%3DTD%26Date%3D20110915%26Category%3DNEWS%26ArtNo%3D110919916%26Ref%3DAR%26Profile%3D1056%26MaxW%3D130%26MaxH%3D110&cfs=1);background-position:50% 50%;" /></a> Oprah given exclusive access to Tahoe safe opening | TahoeDailyTribune.com www.tahoedailytribune.com SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. A hidden safe that was discovered during the renovation of the former Bill's Lake Tahoe Casino building last month (read more) Then I found this that refers to the streaming video event being aired on the Found show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. If any of you can find it on her site, please do and post what you find. I can't find a thing about it on her gigantic network.  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2011</h2><a></a>Tahoe Mystery Casino Safe</h3>  Ken DunckelOwner, Safecracker415-203-7298 kendunckel@aol.com Serving the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern CaliforniaLast Friday (August 26) a lady named Annette Lassen called and introduced herself as a Segment Producer for LMNO, a television production company. She dropped the Oprah Winfrey Network name during the first sentence or two, saying her company wanted to hire me to open the mystery safe found during demolition work at a former casino at Lake Tahoe, and that her company wanted to do some video of the work.She sketched the circumstances: Former casino owner killed by a car bomb in 1968, murder not solved, suspected organized crime involvement (ya think?), locked safe found behind a wall in the old casino building owned by the victim.Supposedly there had been several unsuccessful tries at opening the safe before Annette called me, but my thinking is that it only proved they hadn't been willing to hire a real safe tech.The thinking was that there might be something in the safe, whether valuables or evidence related to the unsolved case. Somehow, the story leaked all over the place. Annette's company wanted to be in charge of live streaming the event on the internet, then a TV feature on the  Found  show, on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Local police also want to look at the safe contents, if any, to see if it holds anything related to the unsolved car bomb murder. That was why Annette called me. I said I could do it, so she said she would email photos, and we would talk more on Saturday, after I looked at them.The photos showed a burglary resistive safe with a mechanical dial that looked intact, and a bolt control handle that was at the wrong angle, which told me somebody had probably tried to force it to turn and it had broken (just like it was designed to break when wannabee safe burglars go to work).The safe was/is familiar to me. That make and model was used extensively by McDonald's restaurants. I've worked on lots of them. What they (producers and investigators) don't know (or are choosing to ignore) is that the safe was made after the supposed owner got killed by the car bomb. Hey, why contaminate a perfectly good news story with facts?Annette called me on Saturday, asked if I could do it on Tuesday, August 30. I told her sure, I could do the job, and gave her my price. She said she'd submit it for approval, and called back soon after to tell me it was okayed, but now they wanted to do it on Wednesday August 31. I said sure, and we agreed to talk on Monday so I could get more details.While certainly a decent piece of work, an opening job for the safe in this story is fairly routine, but not a career pinnacle. The hardest part of it would be the long drive to and from.After Annette and talked, I checked on line. This story seemed to have gone viral on the web. I belong to a safe technicians' on line group, and there was a discussion thread devoted to the topic, with a fair number of participants. Lots of TV news programs and newspapers were following along, with all the attendant speculation and inevitable Geraldo Rivera jokes.Partway through Monday Annette called. She was calling to say she was sorry, but the opening job had been reassigned to a safe technician from a city on the East Coast, and they wouldn't be needing me. I asked her if it was XXX XXXXX, and she said,  How did you know? Do you know him?  I told her that in my industry we get to know each other around the country and the world. She said they had received calls about this job from quite a few interested safe technicians, but that she thought the guy they were bringing in knew somebody in her company. According to her, he'd lobbied hard for the job. I said okay,wished her luck in her production. and said goodbyI wasn't super upset about the cancellation. I was hoping that the guy who got the work hadn't offered to do it for free or nearly free just for a chance to be in front a of a TV camera, but the clues weren't encouraging:For my part, I guessed the job would eat two days, what with driving up the day before, working, then driving back the next day. My fee factored all that. It wasn't cheap, but I wasn't gouging, nor was I desperate to get in front of a camera. The Oprah Winfrey Network isn't a charity.The guy they hired instead of me will have to fly from the East Coast to South Lake Tahoe, which will eat a day. He'll probably get a chance to look at the safe before the day the video gets made. The opening festivities will probably consume a good deal of whichever day it happens on, and you can't just fly out of Tahoe as if you were hailing a cab, so probably another night in town. Then most of the next day flying home. Any way you slice it, figure on about three days devoted to this job.My travel costs were driving time and gasoline, not round-trip cross country airfares. So unless this guy is working for free or at a break even rate, it's still not 100% clear why they cancelled.All in all, typical TV stuff.Ken Dunckel
 
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IEatGoanna

WELL KNOWN MEMBER
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBill's Lake Tahoe, was a small Lake Tahoe casino in Stateline, Nevada operated by and connected to next-door Harrah's Lake Tahoe. Bill's opened during the 50th Anniversary of Harrah's in 1987 and is named in honor of Bill Harrah.[1] There was no hotel, although there was an on-site tattoo parlor. Bill's also hosted UFC pay per view fights at all of its bars. In January 2007, Bill's became the only non-smoking casino in Tahoe. After years of business decline, Bill's Casino closed its doors for good January 4, 2010.The site and surrounding parcels of land were purchased in March 2010 for US$5.22 million with the intention of turning the site into a strip club.[2][3] It was later reported that the site would be transformed into a mall including a pharmacy, a jewellery store, a tattoo studio, a Pilates studio, a clothing store, another casino and a restaurant and bar.[4]The Tahoe Daily Tribune reported on a safe was discovered behind a false wall during renovations during August 2011.[5] On August 23, a posting on reddit[6] by the son of the purchaser of Bill's casino prematurely stated the opening of the safe will be documented on reddit. The Oprah Winfrey Network gained exclusive access to the opening of the safe for the TV show Found, that is in development and the broadcast date is not known. The safe was opened 14 Sep 2011 in the presence of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office investigator, but did not find anything relevant to an investigation.[7]
 

IEatGoanna

WELL KNOWN MEMBER
Still not what your looking for but could be the inside truth.[video=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UySt4o-su6A&feature=youtu.be]-- Edited by Mben on Monday 30th of July 2012 07:46:22 PM[/video]
 

Mben

No Deposit Forum Administrator
Staff member
He cleaned the safe out for Mrs Chartrand, Richard Chartrand's mother and took the obsolete casino chips to her garage. First of all why would anyone lock up obsolete casino chips in a safe and second, does that mean the safe was empty when Oprah's network opened it?So, I wonder how much she paid for a bunch of hmmmm
confuse.gif
.... nothing! :homer:
 
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helwin

WELL KNOWN MEMBER
Thanks for solving that mystery. I think a happier ending would be obsolete Happy Meal toys, instead of Barneys chips.
 

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