Arrests made in string of lounge robberies

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This article was published 17/01/2025 (435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City police have arrested a pair of men they say are responsible for a spree of armed robberies at 10 hotels, bars and restaurants this month.

The robberies happened across the city between Jan. 1 and Jan. 10, and were carried out using a handgun and bear spray, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news conference Friday.

“I think, in their minds, they figured out a niche of where they wanted to try and take advantage of some lounges and get some money and do these robberies,” WPS spokesman Const. Stephen Spencer said.

The suspects demanded VLT money and other cash from employees, police said. No victims were hurt. In one case, a victim reported seeing a hand grenade, though that has yet to be substantiated, police said.

Two Winnipeg men were pulled from vehicles and arrested at separate times Tuesday. Matthew Gibbs, 41, and Daniel Redcliffe, 33, have both been charged with multiple counts of armed robbery and wearing a disguise with intent, among other offences. Redcliffe also faces a charge of possession of methamphetamine.

The New Cavalier Inn on Regent Avenue was one of the last businesses hit on the robbery spree, a front-desk staff member confirmed.

She called police at about 1 p.m. on Jan. 10 after what she described as a brazen robbery at the hotel bar in broad daylight.

“I’m just glad they’re under arrest, that they’ve been found and caught,” the staff member, who asked not to be named, said.

She said she had heard other hotels had been hit but didn’t know the extent of the spree.

“The minute you’re dealing with money, you’re open to that,” she said.

Spencer said police contacted Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries and the Manitoba Hotel Association to provide a description of the suspects when it became clear the robberies were “serial in nature.”

The robberies happened:

• At a lounge on the 1100 block of St. Mary’s Road on Jan. 1;
• At lounges on the 600 block of La Fleche Street, 500 block of St. Mary’s Road and 2000 block of Pembina Highway on Jan. 6;
• At lounges on the 3000 block of Ness Avenue, 100 blocks of Dumoulin Street and Osborne Street, and 400 block of Main Street on Jan. 8;
• At a lounge on the 1600 block of Regent Avenue West and a retail store on the 500 block of London Street on Jan. 10.

Spencer said there’s usually a case or two in any given year where suspects are accused of a similar robbery spree and that he doesn’t think such cases are on the rise.

The licence plates were stolen from a lounge on the 1300 block of St. James Street and from near the intersection of Burnell Street and Notre Dame Avenue on Jan. 6.

He said it’s not uncommon for suspects to use stolen plates to try to avoid detection but police are well-adapted at identifying vehicles.

Both suspects are known to police.

Gibbs has an extensive history of property crime dating back to 2008, court records show. He was sentenced to 23 months in jail in September 2021 for a string of break-and-enters and thefts committed in Winnipeg.

Redcliffe has no convictions in a Manitoba court. He is currently pending on a slew of property-crime charges — including thefts, break-and-enters and credit card fraud — allegedly committed in 2024.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca