Russian embassy car stolen in Makati

Barely a month after the Makati city government announced that car theft incidents in the city have significantly decreased, thieves stole a Russian embassy car right at the Central Business District (CBD) Thursday night.

Records of the Makati Anti-Carnapping Unit (Ancar) showed that Alexander Petrov, the driver of Russian Ambassador Anatoly Nebogatov, parked the embassy’s Toyota Land Cruiser near the Grand Tower Building in Salcedo Village at around 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Petrov discovered the vehicle was missing two hours later. The silver metallic vehicle had diplomatic plates DC5401.

In a statement released last month, the Makati government said that from the previous average of four vehicles stolen monthly, Ancar reported that only one vehicle was stolen in July.

However, even if there was no exact figure immediately available, the Ancar office admitted that there were more incidents of vehicle theft reported this month. But the missing embassy vehicle was the only diplomatic vehicle reported missing so far.

Makati has been considered as one of the cities in the metropolis with rampant car theft incidents. The city government, however, has launched an all-out campaign against car theft.

In another incident, police records showed that unidentified persons broke into the condominium unit of the chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) located in an upscale area in the city early Thursday morning and carted off an undetermined amount of valuables.

MECO chair Antonio Basilio is reportedly out of the country, according to the police.

Investigation showed that the break in was discovered by a housemaid of Basilio’s neighbor at the Park Regent Condominium located at HV de la Costa street in Barangay Bel Air.

The woman saw the door of Basilio’s unit ajar at around 6 a.m. and became suspicious. However, the incident was only reported to the police in the evening after it was discovered that no one was in the MECO chair’s unit. Condominium security guards followed up the housemaid’s suspicions and reported the incident to the police.

Police are still investigating what items and if there was cash stolen from Basilio.