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JONESBORO -- A burglar broke into a city-owned shop and stole money from illegal gambling machines that had been seized by Jonesboro police in raids, authorities said.

The gambling machines had been stored inside the city's maintenance building after they were seized by officers in raids last week, Police Chief Mike Yates said. But early Friday morning, a burglar broke into the shop and stole an undetermined amount of money from the machines, he said.

Yates called the burglary an "embarrassment" for the police department.

"We were waiting on an attorney for one of the defendants to bring over the key to open the machines," he said. "We should have just broke them open and took the money out, but we didn't."

Police had raided four sites that were allegedly operating the machines. Eleven machines were seized from an Amvets post, while another 15 machines were seized from three other sites.