A Ballarat grandmother told of her horror yesterday when a man burst into a post office with a gun, as her grandchildren waited for her outside.
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Wendy Rosendale was posting mail inside the Black Hill Post Office and General Store in Peel Street just before 4pm, when the man entered the shop and brandished the weapon.
Two other female customers and a baby were inside the store when the armed hold-up took place.
Speaking to The Courier shortly after her ordeal, Mrs Rosendale said she couldn’t believe the hold-up had occurred.
“I was in there because I was going to send some papers,” she said.
“Then this guy come in swearing and carrying on, next minute he pulls out this gun.”
Ballarat Criminal Investigation Unit Detective Sergeant Steve Howard said the man was wearing a mask and a hooded jumper when he entered the store.
“He demanded cash, received cash and also took some cigarettes,” he said.
“Another offender, the driver, was waiting in the car outside.”
Mrs Rosendale said she believed the weapon looked like a sawn-off shotgun, saying it was “big and chubby”, but said she wasn’t sure.
“I remember hearing bits and pieces...(the offender) was saying ‘fill this up, fill this up’. He had a bag with him,” she said.
“Then I remember hearing a man say “I can’t open the safe”.
Two staff, a man and a woman, were in the store at the time of the offence.
Continued page 4There were no injuries to anyone and no shots were fired.
Police have not determined if the weapon was real or an imitation firearm.
Mrs Rosendale said the whole ordeal lasted only a few minutes.
“It was really scary ... I was trying to be brave in there,” she said.
She said she left her grandchildren, aged in their early teens, in her car out the front of the store.
Her car was parked in front of the offender’s getaway car, which drove north on Peel Street and then right into Chisholm Street.
Detective Sergeant Howard said the car, a gold-coloured Ford Falcon sedan, was stolen between midday and 3.45pm from a car park on Anderson Street in Ballarat.
Anyone with information on the car being stolen or knows its whereabouts can call Ballarat Criminal Investigation Unit on 5336 6080 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.