A group of people allegedly disguised as employees have broken into an Australia Post mail centre and stolen what could be thousands of parcels.
Rockhampton police officer Kevin Mawdsley said police would allege a group of five or six people broke into the mail centre on Musgrave Street in North Rockhampton just after 7am on Saturday.
"[The group has] entered that facility over the course of 13 hours throughout Saturday and a large amount of parcels, mail etc has been opened and also stolen," Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Mawdsley said.
He said the centre was the processing and distribution facility for the entire Capricornia region, which extended west to Winton.
He said police were working with Australia Post to identify those impacted.
He said hundreds, to thousands, of parcels could have been stolen.
"So [it is] very difficult at this point in time for Australia Post to give us information on exactly how many parcels or items of property have been stolen or tampered with and we're working closely with them to try and identify that," he said.
Senior Sergeant Mawdsley said the alleged offenders were dressed in high visibility clothing to disguise themselves as workers.
"It appears that they've pretended to pose to some degree as employees as a means to not draw attention to themselves," he said.
"Certainly very brazen and as we've touched on a degree of planning has been involved here."
Senior Sergeant Mawdsley said an Australia Post van was also allegedly stolen and later found burnt out at Parkhurst about 11:30pm on Saturday.
A 34-year-old Allenstown man has since been arrested and charged with one count of enter premises and commit an indictable offence.
He is due to appear in court on Monday.
Police are still searching for others involved and are urging anyone with information to contact them.
An Australia Post spokesperson said Australia Post was supporting the police investigation and mail processing operations had returned to normal.
"Unfortunately a number of parcel items were taken during the break in," the spokesperson said.
"Australia Post will be working hard over the next few days to identify and contact affected customers and encourages customers to reach out to us on 13POST (13 7678)."
