A rural post office operator has been left shaken after being held up during a robbery in broad daylight.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Carol Brown was working at Evandale Post Office when a man entered the business about 10am Wednesday armed with a weapon and demanded cash.
The offender was wearing a hoodie, with a t-shirt pulled up over his face.
He stole a significant amount of cash from the property before fleeing the scene.
The victim's husband and business partner James Brown returned from his mail run to find police at the High Street store.
"I thought 'there's something going on' and the police officer came out and said 'you have had a hold up'," Mr Brown said.
"My wife came out and she said 'I have just been robbed'."
Mr Brown said his wife was threatened by the offender with a weapon and forced to open their safe, but she was not physically injured.
It was the third time the post office had been targeted by criminals since the couple took over the business in 2008.
The front door was previously smashed open, destroying the locks during a break-in and on another occasion an offender attempted to gain access to the post office, damaging the front window.
Wednesday's robbery forced the Browns to close the shop for the day.
"I'm pretty p----d off, we lost business because of this," Mr Brown said.
A number of police cars were at Evandale throughout Wednesday searching for the offender, while officers interviewed witnesses who may have seen the man running from the post office.
IN OTHER NEWS
Launceston CIB Detective Inspector Craig Fox said it was "unusual" for an offender to target a business in the middle of the day, and police believed it was an isolated incident.
"It can happen unfortunately at anytime or anywhere, it is unusual though," he said.
"To date in Launceston and surrounds there hasn't been a great deal of crimes of this nature, this is really disappointing that this has happened in such a lovely town."
The offender was described as being about 187 centimetres tall with a very slim build, wearing a black hoodie with a grey t-shirt underneath, and carrying a shopping bag.
He had a broken or crooked nose and was last seen in the Evandale area driving a green Commodore.
Anyone with information should contact police on 131 444 or report anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or crimestopperstas.com.au.