Federal authorities are offering a reward for information leading to an arrest in the armed robbery of a Richmond post office.
The robbery of the 1025 Nevin Ave. station occurred at about 12:50 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). The robber can be seen wearing a black sweatshirt, black face mask, and red and black gloves in a video released by the USPIS.
In the video, the robber held what looked like a handgun while he rifled through the station’s cash drawer. While some citizens were present during the robbery, no one was injured, according to Matthew Norfleet, the investigating postal inspector. Postal inspectors are federal agents assigned to investigate mail fraud, robberies, and white collar mail crime.
While armed robberies of mail carriers “dramatically increased” during the pandemic, post office robberies are rare, Norfleet told Richmondside. In Norfleet’s seven years with the San Francisco Division Mail Fraud Team, he could not recall any post office robberies.
Because of the increase in carrier robberies, the Postal Inspectors’ Office is offering a larger reward, $150,000, to encourage a quick and efficient public response, Norfleet said. “The goal is to keep people safe.”
Anyone with information about this robbery, or any other crimes related to the Postal Service, are asked to call the inspectors’ office at (877) 876-2455.
“Even if it’s weeks or months after mail theft happened, we still appreciate the call for a financial crime related to a piece of mail,” Norfleet said.
Norfleet said anyone seeing a mail theft in progress should not attempt to intervene.
“People who commit mail theft, when we catch up with them, they are almost always armed,” he said. “Call 911, [but] please don’t put yourself in danger.”
