Robbery Nets Cash, And Pants Of Victims

We've heard of losing your shirt gambling. But your pants?

Late one night last weekend in a quiet College Park neighborhood, police answered a call about an armed robbery. Once there they found what looked like the center of a professional gambling ring. They also found 12 men, missing their cash, their cellphones -- and their pants.

"It's comical," said Deborah Turner, a next-door neighbor, giggling. "Like something you'd see in an Eddie Murphy movie."

Some of the men had told neighbors they were graduate students at the nearby University of Maryland, gathering for a study group. Now police are looking for them; the house has been abandoned, and the victims, a spokesman said, could be charged with illegal gambling.

In the days before the Super Bowl, they're not the only ones placing bets. Tim Otteman, who studies sports gambling at Central Michigan University, said he started counting the proposition bets off that one game (who'll win the coin toss, who'll fumble first) and tired of it at about 170. Tens of billions of dollars are spent on illegal sports gambling in the United States every year, he said, and college students are several times more likely than the average person to jump in.

Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs at U-Md., said she has known parents who've called for help for a son -- men get hooked far more often than women -- or individual students who've asked for counseling for a gambling addiction. But it's rare, she said.

U-Md. freshman Max Ostheller wasn't surprised when he read about the suspected gambling ring in yesterday's Diamondback, the student paper. The pants, though, were a surprise. But the idea that a group was placing bets in some basement didn't raise an eyebrow.

"Everyone gambles," he said, not meaning people getting mired in debt but rather a little money changing hands. He laughed; this case, he said, was just a little different.

It was the pants.

Neighbors thought something was weird.

A group of guys moved in a few weeks ago with just a small van, hauling in a table and some chairs but no other furniture, said Turner, who lives next door. She met one of them, who said he would be gathering with other students to study. She thought he was cute. Not a lot of furniture, a little different, but a nice guy.

Almost immediately, the quiet dead end of Bridgewater Street was buzzing with traffic. Lots of cars came to the little brick ranch house, and lots of young men, who seemed to be staying there round-the-clock. Sometimes they'd be parked up and down the block, on both sides of the street, said her father, Shelton Turner. Nice new cars that didn't seem like typical student rides -- a BMW, a Lexus, a Nissan something or other.

"Beautiful cars," 20 or 25 at a time, said Jovan Stevenson, who lives across the street. And always men. "I never saw a girl there." That's no study group, he said.

They didn't use the front door, neighbors said, and it seemed to get busier at night and on weekends. There was no furniture upstairs -- just one old office chair in the middle of the hardwood floor of the living room. And curtains were always drawn in the basement, where the lights were on.

Then the trash started to pile up -- a lot. Another neighbor complained about all the comings and goings late at night. It wasn't the typical student house, Shelton Turner said -- usually those have parties with lots of kids standing outside drinking beer.

"This has been a family neighborhood for years," said his wife, Matilda Turner. Then some owners began renting houses to students.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Prince George's County police were called to the house. They found three professional gaming tables, flat-screen TVs, a bar and a cash room. Two men with handguns had made off with the proceeds, apparently. The men in the house had gotten fleeced.

There was no official explanation for the missing pants. Neighbors and students were more than ready to speculate; some said it had to be to keep the victims from chasing after the bad guys.

When police returned the next day to follow up, everyone was gone and the place had been emptied. Neighbors are hoping that someone will take away the trash bags -- more than 16 of them, bulging with empty cases of beer, fried chicken boxes and cans of Red Bull.