By Brendan Rees
The moment a thief smashed his way into the Tooradin Post Office and broke into a safe has been captured on CCTV.
The footage from the shop security camera showed a mask man jemmying the front door open during the early hours of Saturday morning, 8 December.
According to the manager, who wished to remain anonymous, it only took the intruder 45 seconds to allegedly break into the safe about 3am.
“He came in straight to safe. We’ve got two safes and he broke into one of them, he picked the lock,” he said.
“It’s a big metal one but a very old one…I don’t know what sort of tools he used.”
He added “not a large amount” of money was taken, “just coins” and some stamps.
He said it was lucky the intruder wasn’t able to break into a more secure safe: “You need to know a code number as well as a key; he tried to pick the lock and he ended up causing damage to the key hole.”
“He looked around but he wasn’t interested in parcels.”
He said the intruder, who he described as caucasion and wearing gloves, damaged the locks to the front door before entering.
As he walked to the counter, “he just reached over on the other side and pulled the handle” to a door before accessing the safe.The manager said not everything was taken from the safe, and the man was in the store for a good two to three minutes.
“Definitely disappointed, more inconvenience,” he said.
No footage was available outside the shop so it’s not known if the intruder left in a car.
He said the incident comes after the shop was broken into about five months ago where intruders allegedly stole between 50-100 parcels.
Casey Crime Investigation Unit is investigating but have no leads at this stage.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
