What to Know
- FBI agents and the NYPD responded to a Bronx post office shortly before it opened Tuesday after a 56-year-old postal worker reported someone hit her in the head with a firearm and ordered her to open the building and a safe with about $100,000 in cash inside it, according to law enforcement sources.
- The woman was attacked at the USPS location on Castle Hill Avenue around 7 a.m. She had been standing outside it when she was hit with the weapon, law enforcement sources say. Then the person told her to unlock the building and open the safe.
- The victim's husband ran to her rescue but he quickly found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
FBI agents and the NYPD responded to a Bronx post office shortly before it opened Tuesday after a 56-year-old postal worker reported someone hit her in the head with a firearm and ordered her to open the building and a safe with about $100,000 in cash inside it, according to law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the case.
The woman was attacked at the USPS location on Castle Hill Avenue around 7 a.m. She had been standing outside it when she was hit with the weapon, law enforcement sources say. Then the person told her to unlock the building and open the safe.
Surveillance video captured the choreographed robbery. You can see a postal worker arrive at work with her husband by her side on Castle Hill Avenue and Powell. He leaves and she goes inside. That’s when the armed robber slowly opens the passenger side door of that white minivan and rushes into the post office.
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The victim's husband ran to her rescue but he quickly found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
The gunman is believed to have stolen about $100,000 in cash and an unknown amount of money orders. He ran off afterward.
Emergency radio correspondence captured some of the chaos, with a dispatcher reporting a man had pushed a woman inside the post office at gunpoint. Less than a minute later came a report the money order machine had been taken by the suspect, who may have been wearing a mask from the popular Netflix series "Squid Game," an officer was heard saying.
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Law enforcement sources say the robber hit the female postal worker in the head before taking cash and money orders.
The victim’s sister heard about the attack and rushed to the post office.
“I can’t believe it happened in broad daylight. And the second thing is a postal service being a public facility you would think there would be more security. More safety to enter," she said.
Meanwhile, the US Postal Service is pushing back on the criticism.
"The safety and security of postal employees is a top priority for the United States Postal Inspection Service,” U.S. Postal Inspector Kathryn Searles said.
The injured worker was treated at the scene.
The investigation is ongoing.
