‘I was scared... he could have pulled out a gun’ - Caistor cashier speaks of ordeal

Caistor Post Office cashier Katy says she ‘immediately’ felt like something ‘shifty’ was happening when two men came into the shop on Thursday afternoon and one of them took her colleague around a corner under the pretence of looking for a card.

Katy, 22, who has worked at the post office for five years, said one of the men used ‘sleight of hand’ techniques to scam her out of almost £1,700 - but the damage could have been a lot worse.

She said: “I grabbed a bundle of dollars back and he was fighting with me to get them back again.

“I managed to get all the dollars back.

“I just did it - that was my instant reaction.

“He could have been aggressive. He could have pulled out a gun.

“I was quite scared really.

“He could have done anything.

“Anything could have happened but I wasn’t going to let him have the 2,000 dollars.”

Describing how the incident unfolded, Katy said: “I gave him 10s and he asked to swap for 20s, then he said ‘no, I asked for Euros’.

“I was thinking ‘no, I’m sure you didn’t’.

“I got the Euros, then he said ‘no, dollars’ and he started picking up dollars.

“I didn’t think to press the panic button.

“They confuse you so much.

“It wasn’t very nice.

“When they left I burst into tears.

“I had thoughts going round my head all night.

“I couldn’t sleep.

“That money has got to be put back into the business.

“I felt so guilty.

“They talk to you so much so you don’t see what their hands are doing.”

Postmaster Martin Sizer said: “I was out at the time and my cashier was quite distressed when I came back.

“She grabbed his hand and got money back from him.

“She knows if we have a loss we’ve got to put it back in.”

And Mr Sizer had this message for the perpetrators: “Think of the impact you have on other people’s lives before you do stuff like this.

“I’ve hardly slept.

“Both girls have been in tears.

“They won’t work on their own, they’re frightened now to be on their own.

“The upset they give to other people providing a public service.

“It’s really hard running a post office now.

“It can all be destroyed very quickly.”

Mr Sizer said post office CCTV captured the entire incident.

He said he is hopeful police will be able to use the images to help catch the culprits.

He said: “We’ve got very clear images [on CCTV].

“They [the suspected fraudsters] literally skipped up the road.

“It’s a shame that the [proposed] CCTV didn’t happen in Caistor - because of various members of the public complaining it didn’t go ahead.

“If we’d have got proper CCTV in Caistor we could have got essential details for the police, like registration numbers.”