In one of the sillier stories you’re likely to come across this weekend, Full Tilt Poker pro Van “Sirens” Marcus‘ Ferrari F430 Spider was stolen from the Crown Casino parking lot on Friday morning in Melbourne, Australia. You might be thinking that this sounds like a standard carjacking, but you’d be wrong. All that the car thief had to do was point to the fancy, expensive, red sports car, sign his name, and give the parking attendant $30. To say the least, this was no “Gone in Sixty Seconds” heist.
Upon emerging from the casino after a night of gambling with his friends, Marcus found that his car, which he’d used the casino’s valet service to park, was missing. “I am very angry. I am really pissed off,” Marcus told the Australian Herald Sun newspaper. “They spend millions of dollars watching players’ chips and cards in play, but as soon as it comes to the public’s property, there is a lack of security.”
Luckily for Marcus, the culprit didn’t get very far with his car. Adam Ramsey, a 32 year-old father of two from Flemington, was arrested at a nearby gas station about six hours after the incident was first reported. The Ferrari was also recovered, but Marcus is still upset because he says his car was trashed: “It doesn’t even feel like my car.” A poster on the TwoPlusTwo forums joked, “I guess the guy who took the car couldn’t figure out how to put gas in it.”
Crown Casino spokesman Gary O’Neill claims that valet customers are given a ticket to be redeemed when they pick up their car. If they lose their ticket, they’re asked for proof of identification, as happened in this particular case. Apparently, Adam Ramsey equals Van Marcus? Finkle is Einhorn?
A representative of Marcus was quoted as saying, “I can’t believe it is so easy to extract a car from the valet parking system at what is meant to be Melbourne’s premier tourism precinct.”
Last September, Marcus finished third in a $2,100 buy-in Eight-Game tournament held during the annual PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) for $56,000. He’s had a high volume of success in the live arena, taking third in a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event during the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $190,000. Marcus won the 2008 Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila Main Event for $163,000 and was back at the final table of a Pot Limit Omaha event at the WSOP one year later for nearly $280,000.
Marcus has had a considerable amount of success Down Under at the Crown Casino, making his car theft a true bad beat. He final tabled two tournaments held as part of the 2009 Victoria Poker Championship for $50,000 total and cashed in this year’s Aussie Millions Main Event.
