The travel consultant told the court how a colleague had been about to hand over cash to a man armed with a gun before he fled the store after seeing Ward burst in to tears and hide behind a metal safe.
Her testimony is part of a trial into a string of nationwide travel agency robberies dating back a decade.
Haik Madoyan, 43, who is originally from Armenia, denies four charges of robbery, four charges of attempted robbery and eight charges of possessing a firearm.
On the day of the incident on May 30 Ward, who had been working at the store for 10 months, had spotted a man looking at brochures while she served another customer, The Grimsby Telegraph reported.
"At the time I thought he was Eastern European," she said. "I know he had a cream-coloured jacket, trousers and a baseball cap. He had some sort of carrier bag in his hands. He kind of hovered around. He approached the desk. I noticed his face more. He had quite a chubby face, with dark stubble around the side of his face and dark hair underneath the cap.
“He said something. It was a very low mumble.
“I said: ‘Sorry?’ to make him repeat himself. After I said sorry he lifted his hand up and he had a piece of card the size of a business card in his palm. He held it up to the glass. Written on the card it said something like: ‘This is an armed robbery. Do not talk. Hand over cash.’
"I thought it was all a bit of a joke to be honest. I kind of halted for a few seconds. When I had eye contact with him, he looked down to make me look down towards the hatch where you put the money through. I could see the cuff of his jacket, and out of that, I saw what I thought to be the end of a gun.
"He tapped the item on the hatch. It sounded metal. I presumed it was a gun. Then I realised what was happening. My main instinct was to remove myself from his direct line. There was a big metal safe near the window so I went and crouched down near the safe out of his view."
The travel agent admitted shouting to her colleague in the shop’s back office: "He has got a gun."
"Claire’s reaction was to instantly phone the police," said Ward.
"I was crying at this stage. I think Claire’s first instinct was to hand over money. Give him what he wants. But when she got up to give him the money, there was no one at the window. It happened very quickly."
Upon their arrival police ran out in an attempt to chase after the gunman, Ward told the court.
During the session, jury members were shown CCTV footage of the man as he talked to Ward.
Under cross-examination from Mayodan’s barrister Jeremy Lindsay, the travel agent was asked how accurate her memory was, adding that at the time she had made no mention of the man having olive skin, which she had told the jury, and had only referred to the suspect as having jet black hair under a baseball cap, The Grimsby Telegraph reported.
In response, Ward admitted that although she now wears contact lenses, there was no problem with her eyesight.
Madoyan denies robberies and attempted robberies at Thomson Travel, in High Street, Scunthorpe, on December 8, 2007, Co-op Travel in High Street, Worcester, on June 19, 2006, Going Places, at Town Wall, Cardiff, on July 27 2006, Thomson Travel, in Commercial Street, Newport, Wales, on the same day, July 27, 2006, and three other travel agents in Weymouth, Bath and Darlington.
The trial continues.
