Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 | 2:06 p.m.
Amanda Miller
Sophia Nicholas
Barbara Miller
Three women have been arrested in connection to what authorities are calling “staged accident scenes” where the suspects would fake having their vehicles hit, have drivers pull over, and steal items from the unsuspecting victims, according to Metro Police.
In some of the more than 35 incidents the suspects have been linked to, the victims also had cash extorted from them, police said.
Barbara Miller, 38, Amanda Miller, 19, and Sophia Nicholas, 28, were arrested on Aug. 13 and booked at the Clark County Detention Center, police said.
Police began receiving reports in December. According to authorities, three to five suspects in a vehicle would pull next to drivers and have them pull over.
Once they stopped, the suspects would say that they had been hit and needed to exchange insurance information, police said.
While this was going on, at least one suspect would take valuable items from the victims’ vehicles, police said. Other incidents involved the suspects damaging the victims’ vehicles while they were distracted.
In other instances, the suspects would show previous damage to their vehicles and would extort money from the victims as an “on the spot” settlement, or the victims were coerced into driving the suspects to another location to retrieve cash.
The three women remained booked this afternoon at the detention center on various counts.
The Millers are facing burglary-related charges, while Nicholas is facing conspiracy and theft charges, jail logs show.
Detectives believe that at least three other suspects were involved, but they haven’t identified them, police said. They’ve used a 2016 dark Nissan Versa, a 2007 white Dodge Charger, a blue Ford Mustang and a tan Toyota Sequoia.
Anyone with further information is asked to call police at 702- 828-2640. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or crimestoppersofnv.com
