Pawnshop, couple fall to robbers

CEBU, Philippines – Five persons disguised as employees and robbed a pawnshop along the Airport Road in Barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City on Sunday noon, police said.

Branch officials of M. Lhuillier Pawnshop, however, have not told the police the exact amount of lost items pending an ongoing inventory.

Senior Police Officer 2 Roger Uriarte of Pusok Police Station said the five suspects barged inside the establishment at around 12:40 noon with three of them apparently dressed in red uniform.

The three reportedly presented themselves as the company's auditors and went to the teller and depository area even "without" authorization from assistant branch manager Abelardo Mirafuentes.

The two other suspects, meanwhile, stayed at the lobby.

As soon as the three were at the depository area, Uriarte said the armed robbers then disconnected the establishment's power supply, declared the holdup and destroyed the closed circuit television cameras inside.

Apart from Mirafuentes, two other employees were around during the heist, including branch manager Johnrey Rondina, 24, and tellers Aiza Sernerpida, 27, and Meah Tampiz, 22.

They said the suspects were able to cart away cash and jewelry kept inside the pawnshop's vault, but company officials have not issued the actual amount of stolen items yet.

Two customers were inside the pawnshop when the robbery was staged but they managed to run their way out, frightened.

Senior Inspector Zenaido Pastorfide, chief of Lapu-Lapu City Police Office-Crimes Against Persons Desk, said they cannot tell yet whether it was a case of an "inside job" since they are still coordinating with the Scene of the Crime Operatives and Crime Scene Investigation.

Meanwhile, a couple lost more than P200,000 worth of belongings to an unidentified suspect who reportedly went inside their house in Aldea Subdivision, Barangay Timpolok, last January 14.

Nonadel Soriano, 50, reported that she lost P200,00 cash, a gold necklace worth P5,000, a cellphone worth P12,000 and the car key of her Toyota Innova, said Police Officer 2 Gino Guiman of Marigondon Police Station.

Soriano works as an official of an aeronautics school in Lapu-Lapu City.

Police learned that Soriano and her husband Sorel "Bong" Soriano were sleeping in their room early that night and then woke up at around 2:30 dawn and went downstairs.

They noticed that the two jalousie blades of their windows were already detached and later realized they were robbed. (FREEMAN)