Heist at Pawnshop, Police tag 3 of 7 robbers

CEBU - Police have identified three of the seven men, who robbed a pawnshop located at Mango Square along General Maxilom Avenue last Tuesday afternoon.

Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, Director of the Cebu City Police Office, said that there were seven, not six as earlier reported, robbers who barged into the Golden Treasures Best of Jewelry store around 3:50 p.m. last Tuesday.

However, Comendador said, that they cannot yet divulge the names of the suspects pending verification.

The CCPO Director said that the suspects are not from Cebu, though they speak in Cebuano. He did not also divulge any information of their origin.

 They are not “local boys’, he said.

He noted the similarity between the way the robbery was done to that of two adjacent pawnshops along Magallanes St. last May.

In that previous incident, no cash was taken, but the eight robbers took off with assorted jewelry, mostly Chinese gold, displayed in the glass cases of Agencia Anne Jewelry Store and Oro Sugbo Pawnshop and Jewelry Store.

The robbers also abandoned their getaway vehicle less than a kilometer away from the crime scene.

The police are however checking the links between the two incidents.

Albert Young, owner of the store, lamented the lax security at the mall and complained about the failure of the police hotline 166 to immediately take the call.

Comendador said that the police hotline encountered technical problems that time.

Young tried calling the police hotline while the robbery was ongoing, but the call was not immediately answered, prompting him to drop it.

Sr. Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, chief of Thief and Robbery Section of CCPO, said that six of the seven robbers broke into the said establishment and conducted the heist.

The other one was waiting on their getaway vehicle which was parked some 20 meters away from the building.

An estimated P1 million worth of jewelry were taken. — Niña Chrismae G. Sumacot/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)