A thief managed to steal money from slot machines that had been confiscated in a raid of an illegal casino by the Jonesboro police, according to local authorities.

The machines were being held in a building used for the cities maintenance department while the police continued their investigation after last week's raid. According to the police the thief or thieves managed to gain entry to the maintenance building early Friday morning and emptied all of the machines of an unknown amount of money.

The chief of the Jonesboro police said "the fact that they managed to steal the money while it was being guarded by the police is a big embarrassment to this department".

The money was taken from the machines while the police were waiting for a representative for the defendants to bring a key for the machines money boxes to the Police station. The police chief said he wished they had just broken the machines open, but they did not.

The machines were confiscated from four different locations that the police had been watching after receiving reports that illegal gambling was taking place. Eleven of the machines were found in an American Veterans club and the other fifteen machines were found in the other three locations that were raided.

Police suspect that the heist may have been perpetrated by a city employee who had access to the maintenance warehouse. An investigation has been started, but so far police say there are no suspects.