Ex-judge loses P.5 M as robbers hit garage sale

MANILA, Philippines - A retired Quezon City judge lost more than P500,000 in cash and valuables Sunday afternoon when robbers struck while she was holding a garage sale at her house in Barangay Sikatuna Village, Quezon City.

Nora Eduardo, 63, told police she was in the living room with her brother, Rodrigo Ballete, 70, and his wife, Naditha, when the robbers appeared, looking for a person named Maribel. They were having a garage sale and anyone could easily enter the gate to look at the items on sale, she said.

When she told the robbers they might be at the wrong house, they pulled out their handguns, Eduardo said.

The robbers locked the judge in a bathroom on the ground floor and told Ballete and his wife to lie face down on the kitchen floor, according to Superintendent Richard Fiesta, commander of the Quezon City Police District Station 9.  

Fiesta said the robbery lasted around 10 minutes before Eduardo had the chance to get out of the house and ask for help from neighbors, who called the police. Eduardo said the robbers took P30,000 in cash; P500,000 worth of jewelry; a mobile phone and a wristwatch.