Under the blinding lights of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a glitzy edifice that now adorns the Las Vegas Strip, a sly figure operated in the shadows. Alejandro Dejesus found himself ensnared in the coils of the law when his grand larceny unraveled. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department cornered the cunning thief accused of pilfering roughly 2,500 pounds of copper piping, among other metals, from the bowels of the newly minted Fontainebleau Las Vegas—a score amounting to $300,000 when one tallies both the materials and the labor they represent.
Alejandro Dejesus, now branded with charges of theft, residential burglary, and the destruction or injury of property, found himself before the stern countenance of Las Vegas Judge Daniel Westmeyer. The gavel struck, echoing through the courtroom as a bail of $25K clattered down. By posting bond, Dejesus bought his temporary freedom with a promise to return and face justice on March 20.
However, this was not a rudimentary swipe-and-dash. Dejesus sold the stolen metals over a protracted six months, deceivingly passing them off as “leftover material” to an unsuspecting recycling company. When a vigilant guard crossed paths with Dejesus on February 25, hiding amongst the mechanical sinews of the establishment he once purportedly served as a construction worker, the chase began. Dejesus’s charade as a phantom employee crumbled when he failed to produce identification, leaving behind only a backpack—a trove of copper shavings, a mask, and saw blades—to betray his misdeeds.
The Fontainebleau has weathered its own trials and tribulations since the Thunderbird Hotel first took flight in 1948 where it stands. It’s a tale of persistence through a tempest of calamities, including a costly fire, countless ownership exchanges, and a prolonged construction saga that began in 2007. At last, emerges a $3.7 billion phoenix, cradled by the partnership of the Koch brothers and real estate mogul Jeffrey Soffer. With 1,300 slot machines and 128 gaming tables, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas is poised to write its next chapter on the storied Strip.
