Police are searching for two would-be bandits after Postal Annex employees got the giggles and foiled an attempted armed robbery, reported television station KPTV in Portland, Ore.

Portland police said two men wearing red bandanas walked into the Postal Annex on Southwest Beaverton Hillsdale Highway around 9:30 a.m. Friday and told the workers to empty the register.

One of the men had a fold-up knife and was having problems opening it. The employees, thinking the attempted robbery was a hoax, laughed at the would-be robbers, KPTV reported.

The assistant manager, playing along with what she assumed was a joke, picked up the phone and threatened to call 911. As soon as she said the three numbers, the two would-be robbers were gone, the employees said.

"He didn't have a serious voice to him," said employee Shelley Martin. "We thought he was kidding, so we were laughing back at him."

"We just didn't take them seriously. It was like having your kid brother come up with his cowboy and Indian thing," said employee Nicole Luedtke.

The two men didn't get any money, but they did get away, giving the good-humored employees at Postal Annex a priceless anecdote.

Police are investigating the incident as a serious crime for the two men did show weapons.

Police said it is always best to take armed robberies seriously and don't do anything so bold that it might put you or anyone else in danger.