Gunmen Rob Post Office, Force Customers to Floor

Three men robbed a post office at gunpoint Saturday afternoon, forcing patrons to the floor and threatening employees, authorities said.

No one was injured and no shots were fired, according to Los Angeles police.

About 2:30 p.m., three men wearing hooded sweatshirts, and at least two of them armed with semiautomatic pistols, ordered six customers to the floor of the Chandler Station Post Office in the 11300 block of Chandler Boulevard, Sgt. Donna Cox said. Two of the men then vaulted over the counter and ordered a postal worker to open her cash register. Another robber blocked the doorway and stole money from the customers lying on the floor.

“One of them grabbed the window clerk in a headlock, with the gun pointed at her head, demanding money,” U.S. Postal Inspector Pamela Prince said. “She complied.”

Another clerk, who entered the front of the post office during the robbery, was also ordered to empty her cash register.

Other postal employees in the back of the building were unaware of the robbery, authorities said.

The three robbers fled in a compact, silver car, Prince said. It was unclear whether a fourth robber drove the getaway car.

Prince declined to say how much cash was stolen.

Saturday’s holdup marked the seventh post office robbery in Los Angeles since October.

The Chandler Boulevard post office has been robbed three times, Prince said. The other two holdups occurred Nov. 25, 1994, and July 29, 1996.

Prince said there was no evidence that Saturday’s robbery was connected with any of the previous holdups.

“The number of incidents is actually down from what it has been,” Prince said, citing tighter security and tough federal penalties as deterrents to postal theft.

The maximum sentence for robbing a post office is 25 years in federal prison, “and generally post office robberies are sentenced quite stiffly,” Prince said.

The Postal Service has offered a $25,000 award for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the men responsible for Saturday’s holdup.

Authorities hope to get more information from a security camera that may have recorded the robbery, Prince said.