Police are investigating an armed robbery of a large amount of cash from the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild exhibit at the State Fair. The robbers bound two workers during the robbery, State Fair police said Wednesday.

More than $10,000 was stolen, said Brooke Blakey, State Fair police public information officer. People arriving to service the booth in the closed Agriculture-Horticulture Building found the tied-up victims within 10 minutes of the robbery, Blakey said. They weren’t injured.

The robbery was reported about 11:15 p.m. Friday, a couple of hours after the building closed, Blakey said.

Police weren’t disclosing the type of weapon used in the robbery because of the active investigation, Blakey said. While there have been robberies at the fair, Blakey said the case was the first armed one.

No arrests have been made in the robbery, and Blakey said police weren’t releasing suspect information Wednesday. Anyone who saw suspicious activity around the Agriculture-Horticulture Building on Friday night is asked to call the State Fair at 651-288-4400.

Police wouldn’t confirm details of the robbery during the day Tuesday; they released additional information Wednesday.

The Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild has a Land of 10,000 Beers’ Craft Beer Hall exhibit, and sells beer from almost 35 breweries across the state.

Clint Roberts, Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild executive director, said they were thankful that exhibit staff wasn’t harmed.

“We appreciate the law enforcement efforts and ask the public to share relevant information that could lead to the arrests of those responsible,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “This will neither mar nor define what was a fun, successful, and productive 12 days for our organization. … There’s much to be proud of with Minnesota craft beer and our State Fair exhibit showcases that.”

Meanwhile, a woman posted on Facebook on Sunday about the robbery, saying she was outraged that members of her family, who are black, were unjustly the target of police attention while they left the Fair.

An officer in a brown uniform, not a St. Paul officer, approached their vehicle and told them about the robbery, she said. She said they found out at some point that tens of thousands of dollars had been stolen.

When they asked if they were suspects, the officer said, “THEY are,” indicating the woman’s husband and the couple’s teenage son, she wrote on Facebook. The woman has since deleted the post, and she asked the Pioneer Press not to name her.

The husband told the officer they weren’t involved, and the family drove to their St. Paul home. About an hour after they went to sleep, there were “no less than seven cop cars at their house, several officers inside, one with an assault rifle” and officers pounding on the door, the woman posted.

Police asked for the names and dates of birth for the father and son, which they gave them. It was the son’s 18th birthday.

The woman said she wept at the implied message to her son, “You’re a man now. A black man. Don’t you forget it,” she posted. “I guess they had what they came for. Their names. Their (dates of birth). But they took something else that night.”

Law enforcement had stopped a car leaving the area after the robbery, but the occupants weren’t identified, Blakey said. Using the address that the car’s license plate was registered to, State Fair investigators asked St. Paul police to go to the home to identify the people, Blakey said. They were found not to be connected to the robbery, she said. The State Fair Police Department is composed of sworn officers from around the state.

St. Paul police had extra officers when officers followed up at the home, “for officer safety and public safety” in case it was the correct home, said Sgt. Paul Paulos, a St. Paul police spokesman.

“It’s not about race,” he said. “It’s about doing an investigation, it’s about following through.”

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.