A brazen bandit walked into targeted Capitol Hill’s U.S. Post Office at Broadway and Denny around closing time Tuesday night and held the mail facility up for two days’ worth of cash, according to East Precinct radio dispatches.
Police were called to the post office just before 6 PM to a report that an armed robber had made off with cash and that the federal facility was put into lockdown following the holdup.
The suspect was described as a black male in his 20s, around 5’10” with a thin build, and wearing a white shirt and white shorts past his knees. He was last seen headed north in the alley between Harvard and Broadway, carrying a beige register bag with a lock on it.
UPDATE: SPD says the suspect held up a USPS driver on the loading dock as the victim left the facility:
As the complainant came out of the rear doors of the post office carrying a white canvas locked duffel bag he noticed a black male on foot on the sidewalk. As the complainant approached the rear of his truck the suspect quickly dashed up the stairs and pulled a black semi-automatic handgun from his waist band. The complainant had already lifted the rear door and had tossed the bag inside and was trying to lock the handle when the suspect pointed the gun at him and told him to give him the money. He also told the complainant not to lock the door. The complainant backed away from the door before he could lock the handle and told the suspect he did not lock it. The suspect opened the door and quickly reached in to grab the bag. After grabbing the bag the suspect jumped off the dock and ran west on E Denny Wy
The report also notes the suspect’s shirt may have had red stripes on the sleeves. There have been no arrests.
Why was there two days’ cash?
You should have headlined the story.
SLO MO HOLDUP AT CAPITOL HILL POST OFFICE!
I guess it took the staff around 5 to 10 min. to call the police.
Plenty of time for the robber to go next door and order a Dick’s
fries and a drink and then wait for the #8 Late bus to make their getaway.
Did he enter in the main building entrance and did this happen in front of customers? Or was it an entry through the loading dock area at the side hidden to customers? Can’t remember when they close. Either way, I would hope there are security cameras. Glad nobody got hurt.
Is this considered a federal crime? If so, this dude is in for a world of hurt when/if he gets caught.
It sounds like the perp knew about how the money is moved out and when. Odd how they would use a regular employee working alone to do that. A white bag could have just as well been a bunch of letters.
Perhaps someone on the inside helped him out with info.
6pm is pretty much broad daylight these days. No doubt he’s on somebody’s security camera.
I am the USPS Driver who closes this Station M-F and the victim in this crime. Michael H doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I called 911 immediately after the gunman was out of sight (he threatened to shoot me several times and warned me not to follow him) and when I called 911 there was a recording that I was forced to listen to twice telling me my call would be answered by the next available operator. It took maybe a minute and a half before I could speak with a dispatcher. I also screamed at my two coworkers inside our facility to call 911 after the suspect was clear from the scene. This was as volatile as volatile can be as perhaps you can imagine. The scene was surreal and extremely intense during this incident. SPD wasn’t exactly Johnny on the spot as it seemed like it took more than 5-7 minutes for an arrival and even then only one officer showed up at the dock. There was no siren nor lights. It seemed almost like a casual response to a noise complaint etc… The officer told me there were two officers at the front of the station. However, this happened at the rear or south side of our station on our loading dock. Our own Postal Inspectors showed up in force! I hope Michael H is never the victim of an armed robbery and/or assault. Until then he should exercise some restraint when it comes to commenting on something he knows nothing about! Also, maybe our neighbors can have a better appreciation for why we close promptly at 5:30PM and why we do not let anyone in after we lock the doors. This also applies to customers who come around to the dock after closing to try and hand off mail and/or packages because it makes us very nervous, and rightly so as evidenced by this incident. We care about our customers and we care about your safety as well as ours. We know that 99.99% of our customers and the public have our backs but people like Michael H are the kind of people we worry about because they are obviously part of the problem we face each and every day as we provide our services to our community. We appreciate the community support we have received during this time of crisis and if anyone has any information at all we would appreciate you coming forward. This incident took place about 5:52PM and the suspect either ran west on Denny or ran north up the alley behind the Station and behind Dicks headed towards Olive. He was carrying a large off white canvas bag with a large Bold black #2 on it that had a circle around it. He probably had it folded or rolled up under his shirt which would have created a bulge under his shirt as well as the bulge from a large semiautomatic pistol he tucked back into his waistband on his front (appendix) right side. He had short black hair with salt and pepper look to it and he was mid to late 20’s in age. He stood at about 5’11” and weighed about 150-160lbs with a slim build. He had a light colored short sleeve t-shirt type of pullover on and slightly darker colored shorts that where below the knee. He had tennis shoes on that I believe were dark colored. He has good grammar and didn’t talk like a street thug. He seemed educated. He obviously had been in the immediate vicinity for several minutes before he came at me. He probably had been in the same vicinity for a day or two and possibly several days prior to the incident. This would have been around the same time 5:45PM-6:15PM each business day M-F doing surveillance. This would have been around the times my truck is always at this station. We close early on Saturday so I believe he was concentrating on our M-F closing time. Even if someone thinks it might not be much or nothing you should come forward and speak up and share it with us because it could be that one important piece to a puzzle that we need to apprehend this guy and get him off the streets! We appreciate your support and you’re understanding of this situation. I am relieved that no one including our customers, bystanders, and my coworkers were not harmed during this incident. Thank you!