Hotel heists such as the one reported at the Holiday Inn in Cody on Monday seem to be exceedingly rare, unless the target is a major casino or high-dollar property in a big city.
Apparently, the woman who robbed the Holiday Inn at gunpoint didn’t get that memo.
“There was less than $1,000 lost,” Det. Sgt. Trapp Heydenberk of the Cody Police Department told Cowboy State Daily. “It was not like an Ocean’s 11 (situation).”
Brian Kozak, former police chief in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily that hotel robberies have been almost unheard of in recent years.
“In my 35 years of law enforcement, I can’t even think of a hotel robbery happening,” he said.
Heydenberk pointed out that felony crimes on the whole are a rarity in Cody.
“Violent felony street level crimes are certainly a rare occurrence in our town,” he said. “You know, it’s a safe place to live, and I think this is a rather unusual occurrence. I’m thinking it’s been in the neighborhood of 10 years, if not more, since we’ve had a crime like this.”
Heydenberk added that the desk clerk was unharmed.
“He’s doing pretty well,” he said.
Kozak said that in the years he was the police chief in Cheyenne, there were very few armed robberies.
“I mean, occasionally we would have a criminal that would do some robberies in a pattern and it took a while for us to catch them, and then once we caught the suspect the robberies ended,” he said. “So from time to time, someone will move into your area and commit some robbery – but yeah, robberies are pretty rare in Wyoming.”
Kozak theorized that the fact that a high number of Wyoming residents own firearms might be a deterrent to violent offenders.
“I believe suspects, bad guys, have that in the back of their mind at all times,” he said.
Heydenberk pointed out that while the person who robbed the Cody hotel has not been apprehended, tips have been coming in.
A citizen reported finding black gloves and black boots in a dumpster Monday evening.
Heydenberk said Cody police are looking into all leads.
“We continue to canvass the area to try to locate other surveillance cameras and gain any footage of interest with other neighboring businesses,” he said. “If anyone has residential footage in the area that might be of interest, we would welcome that information as well.”
