3 men caught stealing rice from warehouse

Three of four men were arrested yesterday morning when they were caught loading 38 sacks of expensive rice into a multicab after they allegedly stolen these from a warehouse at Fortich Street in sitio Banawa, barangay Guadalupe, owned by a rice retail businessman.

Policemen said one of the arrested suspects was 32-year-old Rey Edullantes, of barangay Lipata in Minglanilla, who was an employee of the warehouse owner, Juan Lim. 

The two other arrested suspects were Jessie Serbado, 26, a former security guard, of barangay Tunghaan in Minglanilla, and Jupiter Eslaga, 25, who was the driver of the rented multicab used for the supposed transportation of the stolen sacks of rice.

A fourth suspect, Simeon Lanit, who was also a warehouse employee of Lim, was able to escape.

The arrest came after the police received complaints from Lim, who told the Theft and Robbery Section that his warehouse workers had been conniving with outsiders in stealing sacks of rice out of his Banawa warehouse.

TRS chief, Sr. Insp. Michael Bastes, immediately directed SPO1 Geoffrey Diola to lead a team to verify the complaint of Lim.  A surveillance of the area soon ensued, and the policemen caught the four suspects taking out sacks of ganador and ivory rice from the warehouse and loading these into the multicab with license plate YCK-396.

Diola said Simeon managed to elude arrest, and the three who were arrested allegedly tried to negotiate and bribe the police P3,000 in exchange for setting them free.

Edullantes admitted working with Lim for ten years, and that Lanit was working for Lim for 40 years already.

Edullantes further admitted that he and his group have stolen rice from the warehouse five times before and they used a taxi in transporting these at the time.

Bastes said that Lim had reported that his men were seen in the past stealing four to five sacks at a time. It was only yesterday that the suspects was bold enough to try taking 38 sacks from the warehouse.

Eslaga, defended himself by saying that he did not know that the rice stocks were stolen because he was only hired by the three to drive the vehicle.  He later admitted that he was also the driver of the taxi that was used in transporting the sacks of rice out of the warehouse in the past.

The suspects told the police that they had been selling the stolen rice to a store in Banawa whose owner also owned the multicab that they used.  Bastes said that if they signed affidavits against the multicab owner, charges might also be filed against the latter.

The FREEMAN was able to talk by phone the vehicle owner yesterday and requested that he not be named.  He denied the accusations. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE