Technological advancements on devices these days were created to make our lives easier, but bad people can also use it to commit heinous crimes on others. Last November, a Maryland casino gambler's frequent presence at a local casino, the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, had resulted in crooks targeting him and planting a GPS device to follow him home, which was 50 miles away. The crooks made their move a few days later - they bound and gagged his two kids, then stole an iPhone 6 and $6,000 in cash.
If this wasn't odd enough, the casino gambler, Mario Guzman (names are changed to protect their privacy) was actually followed by another person less than a week prior to the robbery incident. According to a report by the Montgomery County Police, Alicia Guzman, his wife, apparently hired a private detective to keep tabs on him.
Mario habitually drove 50 miles, 6 days every week, to the casino in Baltimore from his home in Germantown. The report by the Montgomery County Police noted that his wife suspected him of both adultery and gambling with large sums of money.
The suspicions prompted the wife to hire a private investigator to keep a close eye on him. On November 11, 2015, the private detective, Greg Townsend, followed Mario as he went out of his home and traveled to the Horseshoe Casino, as per his usual routine. After he confirmed that Mario entered the casino, he went to where Mario's Audi vehicle was parked so he can place his GPS tracker.
Before he can place his device, Greg noticed that there were two persons inside an Acura that is parked beside Mario's Audi. The two were watching him. After a short while, they drove away, but Greg was able to remember and note down their license plate. Greg then resumed his task of putting his GPS device on the Audi. To his surprise, there was another GPS tracker already there, situated close to the rear passenger's side tire.
Greg decided to put his own tracker to the driver's side of the Audi, below the undercarriage just between the rear and front doors. After that, he went back to his own vehicle and waited.
Shortly thereafter, a differently-colored Acura came by, and Greg saw two people emerge from it and started examining the underside of Mario's car along the passenger side. Greg was able to capture a video footage of the two, but was unable to note down their Acura's license plate. Before they drove away, one of the two men momentarily opened and closed their car's trunk.
Detective Thomas Thompson of the Montgomery County Police wrote in the incident report that he "believes this suspect was trying to retrieve the GPS tracker that he or someone in his organization placed under Mario Guzman's vehicle. The suspect obviously couldn't find the GPS tracker because Greg Townsend placed [the tracker] in a different location on the vehicle."
Greg continued to keep tabs on Mario's Audi, and after an undetermined period of time, Mario emerged from the casino accompanied by a woman. Both Mario and the woman got inside the Audi, and they drove away.
The private investigator followed the Audi as it went into a "wooded area of Baltimore." The police report simply says, "Mario Guzman eventually went home for the evening."
A horrible experience for the kids
Exactly six days later, on November 17, 2015, Mario Guzman's two kids, aged 14 (female) and 21 (male) were home alone. The two went out for a while to have dinner. When they got back home at 8:10pm, they opened the garage door. Suddenly, two masked men appeared, pointed their guns at the two kids, and ordered them to lie on the ground.
The kids obeyed and were then bound and gagged with cable ties and duct tape. One of the robbers kept an eye on the teen girl while the other took the older sibling at gunpoint and ordered him into the house.
"Where is the money?" the robber shouted.
The 21-year-old led him to different parts of the house where the family kept cash, and the robber was able to gather $6,000 in cash, which belonged to Mario Guzman. The robbers also took an iPhone 6 from the 14-year-old teenage girl. In just mere minutes, the two robbers fled the house. The kids were then able to break free from their bonds and called 911.
It was not clear if the stolen cash came from Mario Guzman's casino wins.
When Alicia Guzman found out what happened, she informed Detective Thompson that she hired Greg Townsend (because she suspected her husband of committing adultery) who put a GPS tracker on her husband's vehicle. They were able to verify that Greg's device was still there.
Police ran DNA swabs from the duct tape that was used to gag the kids and they found one match within the FBI's CODIS (Combined DNA Index System). The match belonged to a man called Kevin Darnell Carroll, a convicted felon with a very "extensive criminal history." Kevin was apparently arrested early this March 2016 on charges of first degree burglary, home invasion, assault, armed robbery, among many others. Kevin's accomplice in the crime, only identified by police as a "black male", still remains at large.
source: http://calvinayre.com/2016/03/09/casino/robbers-track-gambler-to-home-via-gps-on-car/
