Three contrasting casino dramas
Three contrasting dramas backdropped by casinos recently played out in California, Michigan, and across the pond in Edinburgh, involving an alleged attempted kidnapping, a suicidal climber, and a knife-armed robbery, respectively.
The case of alleged attempted abduction centered around Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks, an incorporated community in California’s Yolo County. Yolo County Sherrif’s Office posted on Facebook that at around 1:47pm on August 9, its deputies responded to the attempted kidnapping of a woman from the casino.
Beitel ignored the unnamed woman’s pleas to get out the truck
According to the police report, a woman informed Cache Creek Casino security that a man offered to give her a ride to the casino’s mini mart. The man, later identified as 39-year-old Timothy Beitel of Woodland, deviated from the mini mart route and instead drove his truck off casino property onto a rural country road. Beitel ignored the unnamed woman’s pleas to get out the truck and parked his vehicle at the dead end of a county road. At that point, the woman spotted a firearm, later identified as a stolen Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic.
Luckily, the woman was able to wave down some ranchers who took her back to the casino. Police later arrested Beitel for kidnapping, being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and having a stolen firearm. Yolo deputies also connected Beitel’s Dodge Ram 1500 truck to an earlier hit-and-run incident in the town of Esparto, which the California Highway Patrol is investigating.
Knifeman in Edinburgh casino
In an incident reminiscent of a 2020 knifepoint robbery of a 69-year-old gambler in the parking lot of Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island, a man threatened staff at Edinburgh’s Genting Casino Fountain Park in Scotland before making off with cash and casino chips.
The Edinburgh Police Division took to Facebook to appeal to the public for information on the armed robbery, which took place around 1am at the Genting Casino on August 9.
threatened other casino workers at the cash desk, taking a “five figure sum in cash and casino chips”
According to police reports, the unidentified suspect, who is still at large, approached a casino worker on a break, made threats with a knife, and told the worker to take him into the casino. Inside, the suspect threatened other casino workers at the cash desk, taking a “five figure sum in cash and casino chips.” The man then fled on foot via an emergency exit into the underground parking lot.
An eyewitness report in the Edinburgh Evening News described the robbery as “quick, quiet and clearly calculated […] a lot of thought had gone into it.”
Detective Inspector Kevin Tait of Corstorphine CID said: “Nobody was injured in this incident but it was a frightening experience for the staff members involved.”
Suicidal male at Island Resort and Casino
On August 8, a suicidal man scaled a construction elevator mast outside the approximately 122-foot Island Resort & Casino in Harris Township in Michigan’s Menominee County.
The Hannahville Tribal Police Department shared a press release of the incident via Facebook.
According to the police press release, three members of the Menominee County Sheriff’s Office negotiator team operating from the hotel’s roof successfully talked down the 34-year-old Escanaba male after around an hour-and-a-quarter.
An elevator lifted members of the police and fire/rescue to the top of the mast, where they placed the suicidal suspect in protective custody