Mike Laub recently bought Bill's casino in Lake Tahoe and was in the process of renovating the building. But when he started tearing down walls, Laub found a four foot tall, black locked safe that was hidden underneath a staircase and sealed off behind a wall.


What the hell? How did no one know about this? What could be so important to seal the safe off completely? To not even let it be accessible, even. That's the question that'll be answered in the next few days.

Laub thinks the safe belongs to a previous owner of the casino, Richard Chartrand. Chartrand was killed in 1968 when a bomb exploded underneath his car as he backed out of his driveway. Hm. Casino owner + money + bomb death + the 60's = Mafia anybody? That's what the speculation has always been at least. So if Chartrand was killed by the Mafia and the safe belongs to Chartrand, it doesn't take a wiseguy to know that the Mafia would take a keen interest as to what's inside. And though the mafia might not be as powerful as they once were, things could get mighty interesting once that safe pops off.


But while Mike Laub was talking to the press about how bizarre the safe was, his son, Jordan Laub has promised Reddit that he'll open the safe live online. In his words, he'll be there before the newspapers with a blowtorch and in charming teenage ignorance, says he's not worried about the mafia. The way I see it, the contents of the safe can go one of two ways: 1) whatever's inside is big enough that the mafia is going to kill someone over it or 2) it's going to be very disappointing (like Capone's vault). I'm hoping there's a third scenario. [Tahoe Daily Tribune via Reddit via @kn0thing, Image Credit: Adam Jensen/Tahoe Daily Tribune]

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