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Harvey’s Casino Bomb

fbi.gov

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Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#11

Post by anonu »

beervirus wrote: post #7
MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #6

>Tourists at neighboring casinos bet on when the bomb would go off, or if it would go off. After the bomb detonated, crowds cheered and reveled from a safe distance. Completely unhinged tourists. Hotel explodes and people cheer cause they probably won money.

Meh, no one was hurt. Vegas is all about spectacle, and this was certainly a spectacle.

The schadenfreude is killing me. Im sure many working class people lost their jobs. A hotel was demolished causing substantial monetary loss for its owners and investors. The FBI had egg on their face.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#12

Post by tyingq »

If you're confused by the description of two boxes and the picture of the single box, the picture is of the smaller box that was on top. The box on the bottom held the dynamite. From googling around a bit it wasn't exactly 1,000lbs of dynamite. It was 18 cases of Hercules Unigel dynamite, each case about 40lbs, so 720lbs.

A tech-oriented rundown of the device: https://hackaday.com/2015/09/21/this-is-what-a-real-bomb-loo... (some factual errors, for example, there was no TNT in the device. Just dynamite. But a good overview of the anti-tamper pieces)

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#13

Post by rtkwe »

nom wrote: post #4

Super interesting. How is it that we don't hear about such cat-and-mouse games anymore? Do they not happen or are they not talked about? It seems like it's a thing of the past, but why?

Because it doesn’t usually work out. Most of the time if you’re asking for physical cash to be transferred you’re going to get caught especially today given the miniaturization of electronics for trackers or beacons. It’s just too easy to follow whatever truck is being used to move the money and large amounts of money is quite bulky. You could maybe see some come back because of cryptocurrency and like the other reply said you could say that ransomware attacks is the modern day equivalent of this kind of extortion.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#14

Post by Ndymium »

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's."

I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk about it to anyone outside those that are directly involved. But criminals that have executed the "perfect crime" get caught driving over the speed limit, with expired license, spending money too lavishly...

I suppose he would have been caught some other way if not for this, but it almost seems like a comical trope to me. Maybe you are the best bomb maker around, but you weren't that good at the simpler things.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#15

Post by syntheticnature »

Ndymium wrote: post #14

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's." I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk ab…

A big part of it is the same asymmetry you see with security. All the other side needs is one mistake that leaves an opening.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#16

Post by tyingq »

Ndymium wrote: post #14

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's." I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk ab…

>I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this.

I think the same when you watch TV shows like Dateline. Yet the clearance rate for homicides in the US is below 60%. And I doubt that 40% are all master minds.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#17

Post by geocrasher »

beervirus wrote: post #7
MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #6

>Tourists at neighboring casinos bet on when the bomb would go off, or if it would go off. After the bomb detonated, crowds cheered and reveled from a safe distance. Completely unhinged tourists. Hotel explodes and people cheer cause they probably won money.

Meh, no one was hurt. Vegas is all about spectacle, and this was certainly a spectacle.

This wasn't Vegas, this was Tahoe. My grandparents owned a home there not long after this happened, and I remember there being a lot of talk about it. But when this happened I was just a kid. This also wasn't long after Mount St. Helen blew up. My parents and I lived in Carson City at the time. I remember the ash falling. At first I thought it was snow! There was no ash from the Harvey's explosion though. It wasn't that big :p

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#18

Post by me_me_me »

tyingq wrote: post #16
Ndymium wrote: post #14

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's." I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk ab…

>I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. I think the same when you watch TV shows like Dateline. Yet the clearance rate for homicides in the US is below 60%. And I doubt that 40% are all master minds.

that's because there are very few masterminds on the other side of the fence.

The idea of a detective as per cop movies are romanticised, a lot of them are doing bare minimum and are as dumb as the criminals.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#19

Post by erdos4d »

tyingq wrote: post #16
Ndymium wrote: post #14

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's." I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk ab…

>I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. I think the same when you watch TV shows like Dateline. Yet the clearance rate for homicides in the US is below 60%. And I doubt that 40% are all master minds.

> Yet the clearance rate for homicides in the US is below 60%

The war on drugs helped a lot with this.

Re: Harvey’s Casino Bomb

#20

Post by kumarvvr »

Ndymium wrote: post #14

In the end he was caught because his van was identified and because "One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's." I always wonder at how criminals that otherwise might seem movie-like masterminds are caught as a result of mundane mistakes and outright stupid moves like this. You would think if you are going to bomb a place, the first thing would be to not talk ab…

As always, with any crime, the more people involved, the greater the possibility that human factors will sabotage the operation.

The perfect crime has one perpetrator.

It is also why its fascinating that people will believe in conspiracy theories that supposedly involve tens / hundreds / thousands of people.

Theories that we faked the moon landing always intrigue me. Or that the earth is flat.

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