P.O. robber had machete

Press, 20 July 1988, Page 9

P.O. robber had machete

A man brandishing a machete and wearing a dark stocking over his head held up the St Martins Post Office yesterday afternoon and took more than $B9OO. The man entered the post office, in Wilsons Road, just before 3 p.m. He approached a male teller and said, “This is serious. It’s a robbery and I want money.” He then jumped the counter and threatened the teller with the machete, demanding money from the till. The teller and two women working in the branch filled a bag the man was carrying with money. He then left in a cream vehicle driven by a second man. Senior-Sergeant Geoff Kenna said the getaway car, found abandoned at the Opawa shopping mall at 6 p.m., was believed to have been stolen in Phillipstown

early yesterday morning.

A woman who had gone to a dairy in Phillips Street just after 9 a.m. had left the engine running in her latemodel Corona while she was in the shop. When she returned about 30 seconds later the car was gone.

The man wielding the machete was described as 177 cm (sft 9in) tall, of solid, build and possibly a Maori. There was no description of the second offender. The men may have abandoned the Corona almost immediately after the robbery. The police would like information from anyone who saw two men near the Hawford Road entrance to the Opawa shopping mall about 3.10 p.m. They would also like to hear from anyone who may have seen the car being taken from outside the dairy in Phillips Street.