Hair salon robbed by 4 gunmen

Customers and hairdressers of David’s Salon beauty shop in Sampaloc, Manila, were shocked when four men armed with pistols and a fan knife barged into the shop and staged a heist the other day.

Police said the still-unidentified men entered the shop at 1122 A. H. Lacson St. (formerly Governor Forbes St) at about 12:45 p.m. and pretended to be customers.

After a few minutes, the suspects pulled out pistols and a fan knife and announced the heist.

At gun and knifepoint, the suspects divested Grace Madrid, 22, the shop’s inventory clerk, of 57 Palawan Street, Bago Bantay, Quezon City, of P30,000; Shiela Ferer, 28, flight stewardess, of 2114 Vision Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila of her Nokia 8210 cell phone; and cashier Virgie de Ocampo, of 154 Peralta Street, San Sebastian, Hagonoy, Bulacan, of her earrings worth P45,000, two gold bracelets worth P10,000, US$ 600 and P23,000 in cash and various credit cards.

After divesting the victims of their cash and valuables, the four suspects casually walked out of the beauty shop and disappeared. Police are now tracking them down.

Shops along the stretch of A.H. Lacson Street are known "favorites" of robbers. There have been previous reports of robbers entering fastfood outlets in the area and divesting the cash and valuables of dining students, mostly of the nearby University of Santo Tomas.

As these developed, a lady reporter also lost cash and valuables inside a fastfood outlet along Taft Avenue, near United Nations Avenue the other day to a thief.

"I was later told by one of the outlet’s crewmembers that a man seated behind us was eyeing my bag. When my bag was gone, I also noticed that the man was also gone," said Evelyn Macairan.

Macairan decried the apparent laxity of the outlet’s security guard after noticing that the guard was not in his post.

"They should be more concerned about the safety of customers who frequent their outlets," said Macairan.

Macairan also lashed at the slow response of the Western Police District when she reported the incident. "I was hoping that the police could still catch the thief since I made the report just seconds after my bag was taken. But unfortunately they arrived rather late at the scene. They told me that they were late because their squad car suffered a flat tire," said Macairan. — Mike Frialde