No Treats for Tricksters who Tried to Rob a Bingo Hall on Halloween

It’s Halloween. Darkness falls early as kids begin their trick or treat ritual of going door to door for treats and more, but in one sleepy town in Winnipeg, two tricksters sought about a different type of trick or treat – a smash and grab all you can and as they began to put their plan into action, neither of the dastardly duos thought they would face strong opposition…

…in the form of bingo players! Thursday October 31^st seemed like an ordinary night, but the much-loved Portuguese Association of Manitoba cultural club was set to become the scene of something quite sinister.

As bingo players settled in for a night of 90-ball bingo fun in the popular club in Canada, a woman in her 30’s stormed the club with a male in tow as they attempted to pull off a robbery of a lifetime, but the frightfully gruesome pair didn’t stand a chance when the bingo players stepped up and stepped in to stop them.

Get Your Own God Damn Bingo Tickets

Poor Zita Lopes, the 70-year old executive director or the club faced local news with a red-face which was sprayed on by one of the would-be robbers: “We had a lot of support from the bingo (players). We couldn’t ask for better bingo players in here. They wrestled them, they picked up all the money and at the end of the night we balanced (out the books). It was the most amazing thing.”

Lopes continued: “It was unreal the support we got and how many came to me to find out if I was okay. Portuguese bingo is a bingo family. We consider them family because they acted like family. It was unbelievable.” This is the first time anything like this has happened in all the 20-years Lopes has been running the twice-weekly bingo games.

Police believe the red substance to be pepper spray which was used to somewhat distract Lopes from putting up a struggle. At around 7:30pm, police were called just after the female thief attempted to make off with a tray of bingo winnings (roughly $600), but her escape was thwarted by a large crowd of bingo dabbers who caused bumbling thief to spill the cash all over the floor.

One of the bingo bandits; the male with a .22 calibre rifle, was caught by police officers, cuffed and escorted in a chauffeur driven police car to the local police station for questioning, however, his female accomplice took off from the scene after being disarmed. Later that evening in a turn of events, she handed herself in to police where she faced more than just a bingo warning!

Good Old Bingo Spirit

A 38-year old woman and a 17-year old boy have since been charged with attempted armed robbery and have been hit with a number of other offences including threats. The minor will also face charges of failing to comply with sentence conditions. The duo has been remanded in custody.

The Winnipeg Police have commended the bingo players for their actions; however, they recommend never intervening with violent crimes. Constable Rob Carver of the Winnipeg Police department said: “Did they put themselves in harm’s way? Absolutely. Were they at risk? We’ve got a loaded firearm here. Ultimately, they did what people will do, and they stopped a potentially violent event which could have been more violent.

Constable Carver continued:

“While we don’t recommend it, I’m not going to stand up here and say these people did anything wrong because I think that’s what people will do often when they see somebody in trouble. A lot of times our reaction is to jump in and help. With all the training that cops have, we’re really just doing the same thing.”