WAUSAU — Three men are facing a slew of felony charges in connection with an armed robbery at a Rib Mountain fast food restaurant, six years after the crime was allegedly committed.
Ademus Saechao, 26 and Matthew Robine, 33, are accused of robbing the former Wendy’s Restaurant at gunpoint while Zachary Moore, 25, waited outside. The robbery was reported at about 5:23 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2011 and remained unsolved until this year.
Sachaeo, who is also known as “Kung Fu Panda,” is currently serving a 13-year prison term in connection with a string of armed robberies and home invasions in the area that occurred around the same time as the Wendy’s robbery.
Moore, who admitted he waited in the car while Rabine and Saechao robbed the restaurant, was charged in April and is being held on a $25,000 cash bond. Charges against the other two men, who are currently in prison, were filed July 19. All three men are set to appear Aug. 16 in Marathon County Circuit Court to face three counts of armed robbery with use of force, two counts of false imprisonment and a single count of kidnapping.
According to the criminal complaint:
Moore told police Robine entered through the drive through window while the restaurant was closed because Saechao couldn’t fit through. Moore said Robine let Saechao through the front door and the two waited in a walk-in freezer for employees to arrive.
When three employees arrived for work just before 6 a.m. they were confronted by two masked men, one of whom was dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, according to witness statements. The two men ordered the employees to the ground, tied two of the employees up with duct tape and forced the manager to give them money from the restaurant’s office. The pair then tied the manager with duct tape and left with about $7,000, according to the report.
According to the complaint, both Moore and Robine are former employees of the restaurant, which burned to the ground in October 2013. An alarm system that had been installed at the restaurant was not operational at the time of the robbery, police said.
The charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 172 years in the Wisconsin Prison System upon conviction, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
