CEBU, Philippines – Burglars attacked a local meat shop on Cabancalan Street, Barangay Talamban, Cebu City on Monday morning, taking away over P190,000 in cash.
Conchita Lapuz, 40, manager of Virginia Farm The Pork Shop, reported the robbery to the police after it was discovered that the shop's vault containing P194,657 cash had already been destroyed and emptied.
Worker Jemson Tener reportedly discovered that two of the five locks of the main door were already open.
He further found out that the money inside the vault was already gone and the closed circuit television camera wire cut with its memory card removed.
Police could not find any signs of forced entry into the establishment.
Investigation showed that the unidentified suspect possibly used a duplicate or original key by opening the five lock sets of the shop's door.
Police Officer 1 Gringo Muldez, desk officer at Talamban Police Station, said they are not discounting the possibility of the incident being an inside job since the suspect was able to open the five locks.
Muldez added that the suspect could have been in a hurry, that's why he just left two of the five locks open.
He also said the suspect may have also been able to determine the combination of the vault and knew there was a CCTV camera installed in the shop and where it was exactly located.
Muldez said Lapuz plans to subject all of the shop personnel to a lie detector test to possibly identify the culprit.