A memorial service for an ironworker who was killed on the job last week ended in anger and shock Sunday night when about $10,000 that his friends and colleagues had collected for his family was stolen.
The service was for 30-year-old David Rabun, who fell to his death Tuesday at the Cosmopolitan construction site on the Strip near Tropicana Avenue.
At least 40 people were in the room at Palm Mortuary on Main Street near Washington Avenue near the end of the service about 4 p.m. when a man walked up to a microphone set up for the eulogies and began speaking, said Sandra Alton, Rabun's mother.
Dressed in a red shirt, blue ski parka and blue jeans, the blond man, who appeared to be in his mid-40s, told the audience that he did not work with Rabun often but wanted to express his condolences, Alton said.
After he spoke, the man, who smelled of alcohol, paid his respects to several family members. He even looked at the coffin, family members said.
The man, whom none of Rabun's family knew, then created a diversion by telling the mourners that there was a five-car pile-up in front of the funeral home.
Eva Munoz, who attended the service, said the man was acting "skittish" and was talking to himself.
"I remember standing there watching him thinking, 'This guy's not right,'" she said.
At some point, he snatched a bag full of photos, cash, checks, a toy for Rabun's 4-year-old son, cards and a Bible and left the funeral home, said Jesse Alton, Rabun's sister.
Witnesses said the man looked clean but had a ruddy complexion and spoke with what could be a Canadian accent.
"He looked like an ironworker type of guy, a little rough but not homeless," Jesse Alton said.
After the theft, a handful of ironworkers left the funeral home to search the area for the man.
They recovered the bag with a few items in it. But the money was gone, family members said.
Las Vegas police were searching for the thief Sunday night.
"I hope the ironworkers don't find him first," said Ruth Brown, Rabun's grandmother, who came to Las Vegas from New Orleans to attend the service.
Rabun, a member of Ironworkers Local 433, was part of a group of workers that was attaching a steel beam to an upper floor Tuesday at the Cosmopolitan site, which is between the MGM Mirage's Project CityCenter and the Bellagio.
Rabun died when the beam to which he was harnessed fell about 50 feet to the ground, authorities said.
Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-4638.
RSS