I've had two "incidents" this year while breaking a 100.

The first one was at a local casino. There were two bill changing machines next to each other. One was in use, so I went to the other one. As soon as I put in my 100, a woman ran up behind me and asked if money was left in the receptacle. Something didn't feel right to me and I took a step closer as my money came out, and said "no". I could see out of the corner of my eye that she had some bills that she was counting with her arms out right by the side of my head. I grabbed my money and left quickly. I looked back and noticed that the woman on the other machine was still at the machine and glaring at me. After thinking about it awhile, I found a security guard and reported the incident. She told me that the two women could have been working together with one distracting me and one grabbing the money.

The second one was at the Golden Nugget last month. I was again breaking a 100. An elderly woman quickly came up to my side and said something like, "At the risk of intruding,"... Her eyes were on my 20's as they dropped into the receptacle. My hackles raised again. I said nothing and quickly took my money. As I turned, another elderly woman was standing very close behind my right side. I bumped her a little in my haste to get out of there. Strangely, she gave a little squeal and put her hands up like I had scared her or something. Luckily I left with all of my money. Everything went so fast at the time that it was hard to process right away. I'm now wondering if they were working together also.

I'm just wondering if I'm the only lucky person or if anyone else has had similar incidents.

I feel very safe in any casino. They would have to be pretty good to get money from me at an atm or bill changer. Common sense says you keep your eyes on the money coming out until it's in your hand, then you can help someone in need. It's not rude to ignore someone when you have money coming at you.

My one experience with anything like this was at a bartop playing video poker. I was playing solo. People are coming and going all around me. Some are playing, some are ordering drinks. I'm not paying any attention to anything other than my drink and my game.

This guy comes back that I guess was playing a couple of machines over. Said he had money on his machine and went to the bathroom and now it's gone. He asked why I didn't watch his machine. Well first, he never asked. People leave all of the time. We had never even spoken. He also did not tip a chair, or put a napkin over the screen. A simple "can you watch this" and I would have kept an eye on it. It all seemed a little weird but he got security to look at the tapes. I played on until I lost and then left so don't know what happened. But leaving money at an empty machine is pretty stupid. I didn't feel too sorry for this guy.

I know this sounds strange, but I have heard stories of robbers pushing a man standing at a urinal doing his business. Talk about being very vulnerable! In any car, the man is startled and the robber makes a grab for money and wallet. Strange!

A similar con was going on in women's bathrooms. The thieves (usually in pairs) would listen for the woman to be seated and doing 'business', reach over the stall door, lift a purse off the strap hook and run. Some places installed hooks designed to prevent that, placed them lower on the doors, etc.

Amazing what some low-life scum will do.

I once got ripped off handing in $30 in coins at a casino and the clerk gave me $15. It was tried at least 2 other times, of course, now with ticket in and ticket out, it can't happen.