Bank loses valuables to burglars

CEBU, Philippines - The China Bank branch in Centro, Mandaue City lost almost P50,000 worth of appliances to unidentified burglars early yesterday morning.

SPO2 Marcos Noval, Jr., Mandaue City Police investigator, said the bank lost three LCD computer units worth P18,000, a central processing unit worth P20,000, and an AM/FM radio recorder.

Whoever broke in their premises was not able to open the vault. Items inside the already opened drawers were messed up. But Noval said the burglars were not able to take any money.

Nicanor Zuñiga, the establishment’s security guard connected with Puritan Industrial Security Agency, discovered the burglary at past 8 a.m. yesterday as he reported for work.

Wondering that the barrier on the bank’s emergency exit was missing, Zuñiga peeped through a glass window and immediately concluded that a burglary occured. He called the police.

Noval said they went to the crime scene and came to talk with the bank’s branch manager, Victor Mayol.

Mayol told the police that they do not detail security guards at nights because they have installed a security alarm and a security camera.

But when police checked the devices, these were not functioning as the power was drained.

Mayol said the power source constantly drains but it was still functioning when they checked it last Friday.

The police believe that the burglar is someone familiar with the bank and knows when the power source gets drained and when there are no security guards.

They also surmised that the burglary was carried out more or less at 7 a.m. because a roving guard, who checks all China bank outlets in the city, has checked the said branch at 5 a.m. and all the things inside were still intact.

The Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) was able to lift fingerprints that would possibly help in identifying the culprit. —JPM/ (FREEMAN)