Members of the University cheerleading squad were robbed at gunpoint at a Las Vegas cheerleading competition last weekend.
On Feb. 9 at around 10:45 p.m., nine cheerleaders were standing in the parking lot at Excalibur, a hotel on the Strip in Las Vegas, waiting for their coach to bring the keys to their van when an unfamiliar car pulled up.
“A guy came out with a gun and a mask,” said cheerleader Lauren Boyd. “He said, ‘Give me your money’ and it was kind of muffled. He had a surgical mask over his mouth; it was kind of hard to understand him. I don’t know if any of us really knew what was going on.”
Boyd said the man took three of their bags and drove off without another word.
Some of the male cheerleaders were still in the hotel casino when the robbery occurred and came out shortly after.
“They were literally 30 seconds away from leaving the hotel,” Boyd said. “It was good timing for the robber.”
Although the robbery shook the women up a little bit, Boyd said their performance in the competition the next day wasn’t affected.
Cheerleader Lisa Buys said someone probably would have caught the robber had a guard been stationed there.
“There was a shift change at the parking lot, which is why they weren’t there,” Buys said.