(Trends Wide) — A Black Hawk, Colo., casino employee was charged after surveillance video showed her taking $500,000 from the vault and leaving with it, according to an arrest affidavit, but she claims she was “following orders.” ” which he believed came from the bosses of the casino.
Sabrina Ann Eddy was charged with theft of an item valued at $100,000 or more but less than $1 million, according to the affidavit.
A Colorado Division of Gaming investigator wrote in a probable cause affidavit that he was called to Monarch Casino by security personnel on March 12 and was shown surveillance video of Eddy from that same night, when the woman from For 44 years, she had been working as a cashier in the casino cage, an area where money is handled in a casino.
Just before 1 a.m., Eddy reached into the vault and began taking $50,000 worth of bricks of money, according to the affidavit.
“Each time Eddy picked up the bundles, he put them in the same box,” the researcher wrote.
Eddy covered the bills with rags and taped the box shut before leaving the casino in a gold minivan, the document states. About an hour and a half later, according to the affidavit, surveillance video shows Eddy returning to the casino and picking up four more wads of cash in the same manner.
“The total value of all the stacks removed by Eddy was $500,000,” the investigator wrote.
A casino spokesman confirmed that a robbery had taken place, but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.
A spokesperson for the state Division of Gaming confirmed that the agency is conducting administrative and criminal investigations into the theft, but also declined to comment further.
The affidavit says Eddy called the casino herself to notify security that she had taken money from the property and was returning, thinking they might arrest her.
The investigator interviewed Eddy at the Monarch after viewing the surveillance footage and wrote that she told him she received a call on the casino phone from someone identifying themselves as the head of operations, a person the casino later confirmed was doesn’t exist on her payroll, and text messages from someone she thought was a colleague.
Eddy told the investigator that the caller told her the casino was having problems with a UPS order for important equipment and would be in breach of contract, the document says. According to the document, she was told to take the money and hand it over to a lawyer.
Eddy told the investigator that he was given an address to meet the attorney, which turned out to be a local hospital, and he handed the first box of cash to a man who approached his car door.
He says he went back to the casino and took more money after receiving a text saying he had to take more, according to the affidavit.
He arrived at the hospital and “the same man took the box containing the money,” the document states.
Eddy told the investigator that he had done nothing wrong, despite breaking casino protocol, because he was “following orders” that he believed were coming from the casino.
Eddy was taken into custody and booked into the Gilpin County Jail, according to a Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, and remains in custody.
Trends Wide has reached out to Eddy’s attorney for comment and has yet to hear back.
— Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.
