The worst mass killer in US history was a cheapskate who sought out cut-rate meal deals at a retirees center, according to a report.
Wealthy retired accountant and gambling addict Stephen Paddock spent huge sums to amass his arsenal, but often spent just $3.50 for a meal, the Daily Mail reported.
The 64-year-old went to the Mesquite Community and Senior Center a few times a week to eat Mexican food, meatloaf and burgers, according to the news outlet.
And on the day he drove to Las Vegas to check in at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, he dropped in at the government-run center to ask the cook for an enchiladas recipe, the site reported.
“We recognized Stephen when his face flashed up on TV,” said local resident Marshall Meland, 78, who was enjoying lunch at the center.
“He last came into the center around 11 a.m. last Thursday and checked in at the desk, but didn’t stop for lunch like he usually does,” he said.
“Instead, he went straight up to the counter to speak with the cook and asked her about an enchiladas dish she cooks — he wanted to know how she made it,” Meland told the outlet.
“After that he left. No one took any notice of him. It wasn’t until later after what he did that we realized he drove to Vegas that afternoon. Everyone at the center is shocked.”
Other fellow diners remembered Paddock as an unsociable and quiet man who sat alone to eat his lunch.
A retired construction worker described him as “introverted.”
“He’d come in on and off, sometimes up to three times a week,” David Blake, 81, told the site.
“He’s been coming in at least a year and when I first saw him, I thought he was a homeless person, he was unshaven, disheveled, quiet — he wasn’t a big conversationalist,” he said.
“He’d sit on his own, but even if there was someone else on his table, he always seemed to himself. I never saw him getting into steady conversations with anyone, he didn’t mingle, he was just quiet.”
Blake added that Paddock’s odd behavior was not unusual in the gambling town.
“A lot of people who heavily gamble are like that, they’re in a world of their own,” he said. “They don’t get a chance to have much of a social life. Stephen didn’t seem to me like he was into anything else other than deep thinking of how he was going to play his next poker game.”
Everyone at the center was shocked to find out that Paddock was responsible for the unspeakable atrocity, Blake said.
“People are saying, ‘Gosh, if we knew somebody like this was in here, we’re not even sure we’d have come here all the time,’ because they think he could have shot and killed all of us in no time,” he said.