SEATTLE – A Bellingham woman, who used her employee access to steal $200,000 from the Lummi Nation’s Silver Reef Casino, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to time-served (approximately 10 months in prison) and two years of supervised release.

Shannon Morris is a Lummi Tribal member and was an employee of the casino last year when she stole the money from the vault at the casino.

According to records filed in the case, it was just before 3:00 AM on November 24 when she walked into casino and got another employee to let her into the cash vault.

Morris filled a bag with four bricks of cash and told the employee in the vault not to push the panic button.

She then ran from the vault, got in her car and drove away.

Morris later called 9-1-1 claiming that a man with a gun had forced her to rob the casino and that the man claimed to have placed a bomb at the casino which he would trigger if she did not steal the money.

She claimed the man had jumped out of her car with the money.

Because of the report of a bomb, law enforcement evacuated the hotel and casino. No bomb was located.

Under questioning, Morris eventually confessed to the robbery and led officers to the place where she had stashed the money under a tree.

She was indicted for theft by an employee of a gaming establishment on Indian lands.