Las Vegas’ Lucrative Crime Tradition: The Ever-Present Trick Roll Scam Unveiled

Las Vegas has long been synonymous with excitement, entertainment, and a touch of danger. Among the city’s most enduring and lucrative crimes is the notorious “trick roll.” An insidious and highly profitable scheme, the trick roll involves sex workers discreetly burglarizing their clients, typically lifting high-value items like Rolex watches, often ingeniously concealed. Despite its prevalence, this crime remains significantly underreported due to the victims’ reluctance to involve the authorities.

Jonathan Sullivan, a former corporate investigator for the Wynn, sheds some light on the matter, noting, “It’s almost the norm in Las Vegas. I would average at least one trick roll complaint a night. But victims of trick rolls are usually reluctant to report them, and rarely want police involvement.” Many might be unaware, but today’s unscrupulous sex workers in Las Vegas are perpetuating a well-established tradition that’s more than a century old.

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Back in the early 20th century, prospectors flocked to Nevada, lured by the promise of striking it rich. George Wood was one such hopeful. On the chilly morning of January 13, 1915, Wood arrived at the Union Pacific Depot in downtown Las Vegas, en route to the gold-filled lands of Goldfield. With several hours to kill before his train’s departure, Wood ventured to Block 16, the city’s sanctioned red-light district, carrying $190—nearly $6,000 in today’s money.

In Block 16, Wood encountered Camille Smith, a renowned sex worker of the time, and her accomplice, Glen Harwood, whom the local newspaper bluntly described as “a dope fiend.” According to a report in the Las Vegas Age, the two shared drinks with Wood, laced with “knockout drops” of an unspecified nature. Wood soon lost consciousness, and when he awoke the next morning, he found himself “wandering about the streets in a dazed condition, only partially clothed and nearly frozen.” A deputy sheriff discovered him, and it became evident that Wood had been relieved of his cash, his clothing, his ticket to Goldfield, and his watch.

Under questioning, Harwood confessed to the crime, although Smith denied involvement. Due to Harwood’s extended criminal history, the district attorney decided to pin all the charges on him. He would serve a brief stint in Clark County Jail before turning his life around and becoming an auto mechanic. Smith, on the other hand, disappeared from the public eye, leaving her ultimate fate unknown.

Years later, on November 4, 1921, The Record-Courier of Gardnerville reported that a man named George Wood, well known in Carson Valley, had been killed in a car accident near Reno. It remains unclear if this was the same George Wood from our tale, or if he eventually reached Goldfield and achieved his dreams of fortune.

This century-old story of deceit and desperation on the streets of Las Vegas draws a direct line to contemporary trick rolls, a testament to a longstanding tradition in a city forever caught between glitz, glamour, and an underbelly of persistent crime.