During the 10-minute ordeal, a door was kicked down after auditor clerk Delon Bobb took too long to get it open. The man was later gun butted by the bandits, who demanded that all the cash be handed over. They later fled on foot with about $300,000 that was grabbed from the vault and the cashier.
Police later said that about 11 am, three men, one of whom was armed with a handgun entered the building and held up postal clerk Marcia Braithwaite and Bobb. They later escaped with $300,000. Bobb, who was “assaulted about the body” was treated at the Georgetown Hospital and sent away.
When Stabroek News arrived at the scene, police ranks were conducting investigations. A still shaken female security guard recounted that after 11 am she noticed two well-dressed young men standing across the road. She said that they kept looking at the post office for about 15 minutes. One of the men was periodically speaking on his cellular phone.
The woman said she became suspicious and went into the building where she contacted the head office. “I tell them that I think that we gon get rob and they say that they will send somebody… but we get rob before anybody come,” the woman recalled.
A few minutes later one of the men entered the building and asked the cashier to change a $500 bill, but she said that she could not assist him and he left. At the time, there were three customers and as soon as one left, the men pounced.
The guard said that this was the first armed robbery she had experienced and she burst into tears on seeing the gun. She recounted that the bandits closed the door, locking her, the two customers, the auditors and the cashier in.
“Pass de f…ing money,” the woman recalled the gunman saying and he demanded that Bobb open a locked door that led into the staff area of the post office. Bobb was apparently taking too long and the gunman kicked down the door and then began gun butting him. However, he was not seriously injured, the woman said. After taking the cash from the vault and the cashier, the men left on foot, heading north along the East Bank Demerara public road. The money represented what was collected during business transactions for the day.
This newspaper was told that the police arrived long after the men had fled and a search of the surrounding area was futile.
The security guard said she was thankful that no one was seriously injured and that she and the cashier were not the only ones on the premises at the time. She said that the post office had suffered several break-ins in the past but no robberies.
Up to late last night, police were still looking for the men.
