Detectives were last night hunting armed raiders who struck twice in the space of 20 minutes.
A quick-thinking postmistress foiled the two knife-wielding robbers at Grange Moor, but just minutes earlier the thugs had stolen cash from a Scissett betting shop.
In both cases, the masked men escaped on a motorcycle.
They struck in Wakefield Road, Scissett, at 3.33pm and threatened betting office staff before riding off.
Police said the men, dressed from head-to-toe in black, then entered the Grange Moor Post Office on Bedford Avenue around 3.50pm. A mother-of-two who lives across the road but who didn’t want to be named, said she watched the incident unfold.
She said: “A lot of children go in the Post Office so the men waited until they had all left and went in and demanded money.
“Fortunately, Carole, managed to lock herself in and pressed the alarm which made them run off.
“My children had been playing out with toy guns, funnily enough, and I heard the alarm go off and I saw the men running out.
“They made off along a ginnel heading near to Grange Moor Primary School.
“I ran across to the Post Office and saw Carole looking terrible. I said: ‘Have you just been done?’ She said: ‘yes’.
“I took Carole back in. She was green, white and all in bits. An ambulance has taken her away to be checked up as she was so shaken up. She has been there 10 years or more, maybe as long as 15.”
Police were at the scene of both raids within minutes and the West Yorkshire Police helicopter joined the hunt for the raiders.
Det Sgt Nigel Gittins, of Kirklees CID, said: “Police are investigating following two incidents reported within 20 minutes of each other in the Huddersfield area.
“In the first incident, reported at 3.33pm, two men, one armed with a knife, have entered a bookmakers in Wakefield Road, Scissett, and taken cash. The two men have been seen to leave the scene on a red and black motorcycle.
“Then at 3.51pm, a report was received of a similar incident at a post office in Bedford Avenue, Grange Moor. Again the two men were seen leaving the area on a motorcycle.
“Given the similarities of these incidents, we are linking them. Extensive enquiries are ongoing at the two scenes and searches being made for the motorcycle that has reportedly been used as a getaway vehicle.
“Anyone who has any information about either of these incidents or the movements or current whereabouts of the motorcycle involved is asked to call Kirklees CID on 101.”
