An employee of a Wasilla bingo hall is accused of following a winner to her home Wednesday night and stealing the money she had just won, according to Alaska State Troopers.
Troopers said in an online dispatch that they arrested Jeremy McMillan, 36, on charges of second-degree robbery and theft, as well as tampering with physical evidence. McMillan’s girlfriend Alexandria Oberholzer, 34, was charged as an accessory to those crimes.
Sandy Powers, the owner of Big Valley Bingo and president of the Alaska Charitable Gaming Alliance, said Thursday afternoon that she was “deeply saddened” to hear about the allegations against McMillan. She said he was hired just two weeks ago after undergoing standard background checks and had worked as a gaming attendant, assisting customers throughout the facility.
According to a charging document against McMillan, troopers initially responded at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to a reported robbery at a Wasilla home. A woman there told troopers that she had come home and was stepping inside when a man wearing black clothes approached her and demanded her purse, which contained about $1,500 – about half of it won at Big Valley Bingo.
“She stated no, and the male grabbed it and started pulling on her purse,” troopers wrote. “(She) pulled back when the purse came off her shoulder.”
After the purse was taken, she told troopers the man got into a vehicle and left. Troopers also spoke with a neighbor who saw the man leaving and described the vehicle as a dark Chevrolet Tahoe SUV with tinted windows, adding that he also saw a woman inside.
When troopers headed to Big Valley Bingo, they found a Tahoe matching that description registered to McMillan in the parking lot. Surveillance footage captured the vehicle leaving the business around the same time as the victim, according to the charges.
Both the victim and the neighbor identified McMillan as the suspect in a photo lineup, troopers said.
Troopers said McMillan and Oberholzer both agreed to speak with them. McMillan allegedly denied being the robber, claiming he had loaned his vehicle to a friend shortly before it happened. He said that man must have robbed the victim, since the two looked alike – but a records search by troopers revealed that he “looked the opposite of Jeremy,” according to the charging document.
According to troopers, Oberholzer admitted that they went to the victim’s house, although she also denied involvement in the robbery.
A search of the vehicle turned up a black sweater, troopers said. McMillan’s wallet contained $687 at the time of his arrest.
Powers at Big Valley Bingo said that although floor employees often become closely acquainted with customers, McMillan would not have had access to winners’ personal information.
Asked if any similar incidents had occurred at the Wasilla hall, Powers said it was a first for her and her husband John, who owns Tudor Bingo Center in Anchorage, as well as her other contacts in the Alaska gaming industry.
“We’re just dumbfounded,” Powers said. “We’ve never heard of anything like this before.”
Powers said management at Big Valley Bingo was moving to terminate McMillan’s employment in the wake of his arrest.
McMillan was being held Thursday at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
