Last night, a man in a face mask walked into Bethel’s VFW Bingo hall, grabbed a fistful of money from the cash register, and ran out the door. The Bethel Police Department has yet to make an arrest.
Julie Springer was sitting in the first row of the bingo hall last night and witnessed the brazen theft. She said that they were finishing up the second to last game of the night around 10 p.m., when she heard someone yell, “Hey!” in the hallway. “It was scary,” she said.
Five or six people ran after the thief. Jim Wycoff, the Bingo hall’s caller, was one of them, but said that the man gave him the slip when they sprinted past the KuC campus.
Though it has been rumored that the Bingo Hall thief was armed, Bethel Chief of Police Burke Waldron said that appears to be incorrect. He also said that the Bethel Police Department’s investigation is ongoing.
"We have some information that we need to follow up on,” he said. “We don’t have anybody in custody, no.”
Waldron added that they don’t know how much money the thief took at this point. Tuesday is the Lions Club’s Bingo night, and the proceeds from the night’s games would have gone to them.
Our reporting on the theft is ongoing.