NRLW stars have been confronted by an intruder who broke into their Las Vegas hotel room while they slept.
Former St George Illawarra star Indie Bostock and Raiders player Georgia Willey woke up to find a bearded man wearing a beanie in their room before the man ran out in the early hours of Friday morning, local time.
Bostock and Willey are part of the Aus Vegas Angels team that is contesting the Vegas Nines tournament, and their coach Jeff Killick reported the incident to hotel management.
‘We’re up on the high floors … the trainer came down this morning and said, “Jeff, I woke up this morning at 4.45am. I heard this noise and the light came on in my room. There were two people in there”,’ Killick told News Corp.
‘He [the trainer] said his roommate picked up a chair. The intruders said “this is Vegas” and they ran out of the room.
‘Georgia Willey said the same thing happened to them.
‘They woke up to a guy in their room with a beard and a beanie on. He ran out of the room.
‘Parents have trusted me [with their daughters].
‘A couple of the girls said sometimes when another door in the floor gets closed, their door gets open.
‘This could have been the worst outcome.’
Bostock summed up the frightening ordeal in a post to Instagram, writing: ‘Hotel swap because while in Vegas for a tournament your hotel room gets broken into and five [sic] a six-foot man standing in your room at 4am.’
Killick also revealed that parents who are in Vegas to watch their daughter play were confronted by an axe-wielding man in a supermarket, who was disarmed by security before he could rob them.
Despite the drama, the Angels have won their way through to the final of the event, where they’ll face the Sydney Roosters.
This year’s Nines tournament in Sin City features 46 teams, many of which come from the USA and England.
The chilling incident with the intruder isn’t the first time rugby league’s foray into America has been hit by crime.
In 2024, journalists were left fearing for their safety in the lead-up to the first matches in Vegas.
One footy reporter was bailed up by a knife-wielding man while working late at night in the beachside Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, with the Roosters and Broncos basing themselves in the city before flying to Vegas.
The man accused the journalist of damaging his car but left when the Australian denied the accusation.
Another incident saw a separate reporter and his TV crew fear for their lives when they were hemmed in by three cars during a late-night job in Westlake Village, a short drive north of Los Angeles.
They were filming their report when the vehicles converged on them from different directions and cornered them.
The crew managed to finish their report, with the journalist believing that one of his colleagues saved them when he made a phone call and possibly led the people in the cars to believe he was contacting the police.
‘It was the most terrifying experience of my life,’ the reporter said.
‘It was the first time in my life that I thought I was going to die.
‘The honest feeling was we were either going to be robbed or killed. I was genuinely worried about not surviving.’