SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – With a scheme that would fit in “Ocean’s 11” or “Poker Face”, a cashier at a Colorado casino pulled off the largest casino heist in the state’s history this month. She claims she was just following orders.
According to an arrest affidavit cited by 9News, 44-year-old Sabrina Eddy walked out of the Monarch Casino in Black Hawk, Colo., with $500,000 at around 12:45 a.m. March 12, as the clocks were changing due to Daylight Savings time.
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She was booked into the Gilpin County jail later that day and had not made bond as of Monday, said the outlet. However, Eddy claims that she did nothing wrong and was simply following orders. Just who gave her those orders – if anyone did at all – remains unclear.
Per the affidavit, Eddy said she received a call on the casino’s phone from a man who claimed to be Monarch’s Head of Operations. Eddy told investigators this man told her the casino was having a problem with a UPS order and needed the money taken out so the casino would not “be in breach of contract.”
She said she was also in contact with another man who she believed was a casino employee via text. The person sending those texts backed up the UPS order story, the report indicates. Both men told her the funds needed to be delivered to a lawyer.
Video footage shows Eddy reaching into a vault in the casino’s cage and grabbing bricks of cash each worth $50,000.
“She put what appeared to be... rags in the box and, at about 12:55 a.m., she taped the box shut,” the affidavit said.
Eddy then entered the casino parking garage and left in a gold minivan. She returned an hour later and grabbing four more bricks before leaving again. She brought the box to St. Anthony’s Hospital, and gave it to a man at approximately 4:36 a.m., per the affidavit.
“When she tried to call back the men who instructed her to take out the money, she told investigators there was no answer,” according to the 9News report. Then, she called Monarch to tell them she was returning to the casino.
According to the affidavit, Eddy said she took the money off property – despite knowing casino procedures – and “thought she might be arrested.”
Monarch confirmed that the theft occurred but said it could not provide details due to an ongoing investigation, 9News reported.
“As a business, sometimes unfortunate things happen,” spokesperson Erica Ferris said. “We’ve been fortunate in the past.”
“For something like that to happen, it would’ve had to defeat a number of different levels of casino controls within the property,” said Ron Kammerzell, a former head of the Colorado Division of Gaming quoted by 9News. He now works as a regulatory consultant for the gaming industry. He said this is the largest Colorado heist he’s heard of since gambling became legal in the state around three decades ago.
In January alone, Colorado gaming generated more than $118 million in revenue, according to data from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Last year, it generated more than $1 billion in revenue. A January report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal said there have also been a number of casino robberies at off-strip casinos in recent months.
Kammerzell said the Colorado Division of Gaming would investigate the Monarch theft and determine how to prevent it in the future.
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