Bizarre Heist at Blackhawk Casino is Largest in Colorado History
It's like something out of a modern-day heist movie.
As the clocks were set to spring forward on March 12, a casino employee at Blackhawk's Monarch Casino Resort Spa reached into the vault and started plucking $50,000 bricks of cash out of the cashier's cage.
She wrapped the money in rags and put them one by one into a box, which she sealed shut with tape. Investigators say she then casually walked out of the casino with the box, where video cameras caught her entering the parking garage, getting into a gold minivan and leaving the property.
She eventually came back for more cash, packed those bricks up as well, and left again. All told, she had gotten out of the casino with a half million dollars, and all of it was caught on surveillance video. A former head of the Colorado Division of Gaming told 9News in Denver that he'd never heard of a heist of this magnitude.
Seems pretty open and shut, right? Not so fast.
The arrest affidavit states that the woman told investigators that she was called on the casino phone and told to remove and pack up the money by someone she believed was the head of operations. She was also receiving texts from someone she was told was the cage manager of the casino, who told her they were having an issue with a UPS delivery order and needed her to drive the cash to a lawyer who was waiting for it at St. Anthony's Hospital in Denver, otherwise, the casino would be in "breach of contract."
In other words, the woman was just following orders, or so she says.
She told investigators after delivering the money to the man at the hospital. She called the men who had instructed her to do so, and - shocker - there was no answer. She then called the casino and told them what she had done, knowing it was a breach of the procedure but stating she was ordered to do so by casino members, and that she did nothing wrong.
She was arrested and booked into Gilpin County jail on suspicion of theft.
As the investigation continues, she waits in jail. She has not posted bond. 9News' Cole Sullivan is closely following the case, and it's fascinating to watch as it develops.