Chimayó: Reward offered in post office robbery

The U.S. Postal Service is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man who robbed the Chímayó post office at gunpoint Wednesday.

A man between the age of 18 and 20 entered the post office at about 2:20 p.m. and demanded money from the postmaster, said Amanda McMurrey, postal inspector in Fort Worth, Texas. The man then left with an undisclosed amount of cash, she said.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that even if you take a penny from the Postal Service, we’ll follow you as vigorously as if you took $50,000,” McMurrey said.

John Skoglund, head of the postal inspection service in Forth Worth, said robbing a post office is a federal crime with a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

“Fort Worth Division inspectors will be working with (the) local police department making every effort to ensure the perpetrator of this robbery is apprehended and prosecuted,” Skoglund said.

The robber is described as 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with a medium build, McMurrey said. He wore a bandana as a mask, dark sunglasses, jeans and a blue sweat shirt.

The man did not take any mail, McMurrey said, and investigators believe the robbery was random. The man did not harm the postmaster.

Anyone with information on the case should call postal inspectors at (505) 346-8490 or the state police in Española at (505) 753-2277.