Thieves rob Western Union outlet in Runaway Bay

By Clinton McGregor    

 

The St. Ann police have launched a manhunt for two armed robbers who attacked a Western Union and Cambio outlet in Runaway Bay on Wednesday afternoon.

 

The hoodlums made off with approximately $2 million in cash.

 

It's reported that about 12:23 p.m., two masked gunmen entered the Western Union outlet located in Salem, pointed guns at the cashier and demanded money.

 

Radio Jamaica News was informed that one of the men used a hammer to break the class shield at the cashier counter and grabbed the cash.

 

The cashier was then kidnapped by the hoodlums in their escape.

 

But she was released unharmed a short distance from the crime scene.

 

Radio Jamaica News spoke with a director of the Western Union outlet who said there was a gunbattle between the gunmen and a licensed firearm holder after the robbers held the owner and cashier at gunpoint.

 

"When they were refused initially they threatened the worker. They also threatened the owner. Upon trying to escape they were accosted by the owner's father, who exchanged gunfire with them. They subsequently kidnapped, I would say, the worker, took her some metre down the road before she was released. They left behind a magazine," the director disclosed.