Two Arrested Over String Of Illinois Video Gambling Machine Burglaries
Illinois authorities have arrested two men accused of carrying out a string of burglaries targeting video gambling machines across central Illinois, as the state grapples with a broader surge in break-ins at bars, gaming parlors, and other venues housing the terminals.
Reese A. Heckman, 34, of Decatur, and Travis R. Ziemer, 28, of Macon, are accused of entering premises through the roof, cutting power, and using sledgehammers and crowbars to rip ATMs or cash boxes from video gambling machines, according to investigators.
Cell Phone Data Led To The Arrests
Specific incidents include the theft of an ATM from a tavern in Decatur in July and a failed attempt to remove one from a gaming venue in the same city later that month.
Cell phone records tied to the pair led investigators to a bar in Latham on September 14, where the Logan County Sheriff's Office found the business freshly burglarized, with power disabled and multiple machines smashed and emptied.
Heckman and Ziemer were arrested that morning, and follow-up searches recovered burglary tools, gaming-machine money boxes, and a stolen vehicle that had been repainted.
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Part Of A Statewide Burglary Wave
The arrests come amid a marked escalation in attacks on Illinois' network of nearly 50,000 video gaming terminals.
Illinois Gaming Board figures show 502 burglaries were logged by late June, already exceeding the 473 recorded for all of 2025, with losses topping $1.5 million across venues in more than 100 municipalities.
Police in the Chicago suburbs have separately formed a multi-agency task force after a string of similar break-ins, with investigators in some cases linking the same crew to coordinated strikes on gaming machines in different towns within a 24-hour window.
Detectives are now examining whether the central Illinois arrests connect to other burglaries reported elsewhere in the state.
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