Betel-chewing gang digs tunnel, empties vault in holiday heist
12/28/2009 | 11:35 PM
BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – Returning from their holiday break on Saturday, employees of the FGM Pawnshop near this capital town noticed red-colored spittle from chewed moma (betel nuts) before discovering a man-size hole at the floor inside their walk-in vault, a belated police report said Monday.
Inside the forcibly opened safety vaults, the pawnshop employees found nothing but empty jewelry boxes, including empty boxes for Bulova and other expensive watches.
According to Chief Inspector Extor Serrano, Solano town police chief, the suspected robbers probably belong to the notorious Samahang Ifugao-Igorot Group (SIIG), and may have struck between December 24 and 26 when most businesses were closed for the holidays.
Police said the suspects might have entered a six-foot high main waterway beneath the street at the public market, then walked some 250 meters up to the corner of the commercial building that housed the pawnshop.
The suspects then dug a tunnel a few meters long, leading right smack into the door of a safety vault, probers said.
PO2 Dexter Divad of the Solano police said that car jacks were used to open the vaults instead of the usual acetylene. “Car jacks are the tools of choice in opening vaults if they cannot carry acetylene tanks due to the small opening of the tunnel," Divad explained.
Interviewed by GMANews.TV, Serrano said the heist has the marks of an SIIG job. “The manner that it (robbery) was executed is reminiscent of all the previous break-ins that they have done in many parts of Region 2," he said.
Unconventional methods of break-ins associated with the criminal group include entering via man-made tunnels, across roofs, or by renting vacant rooms beside an establishment and boring a hole through its wall.
SIIG, according to Serrano, is an organized crime group which is based in the Cordillera region but operates as far as Cebu and even Mindanao.
The police chief added that members of the gang who were caught always managed to evade the law since their "pool of lawyers have advised them not to bring any firearms so that they can be bailed out whenever they are caught."
Police said they are still hot on the trail of the suspects, who they believe are hiding in nearby Ifugao province.
The pawnshop’s owner, identified as Franny Macasu, has yet to declare the amount of cash and valuables lost in the robbery. - Floro Taguinod, GMANews.TV
Inside the forcibly opened safety vaults, the pawnshop employees found nothing but empty jewelry boxes, including empty boxes for Bulova and other expensive watches.
According to Chief Inspector Extor Serrano, Solano town police chief, the suspected robbers probably belong to the notorious Samahang Ifugao-Igorot Group (SIIG), and may have struck between December 24 and 26 when most businesses were closed for the holidays.
Police said the suspects might have entered a six-foot high main waterway beneath the street at the public market, then walked some 250 meters up to the corner of the commercial building that housed the pawnshop.
The suspects then dug a tunnel a few meters long, leading right smack into the door of a safety vault, probers said.
PO2 Dexter Divad of the Solano police said that car jacks were used to open the vaults instead of the usual acetylene. “Car jacks are the tools of choice in opening vaults if they cannot carry acetylene tanks due to the small opening of the tunnel," Divad explained.
Interviewed by GMANews.TV, Serrano said the heist has the marks of an SIIG job. “The manner that it (robbery) was executed is reminiscent of all the previous break-ins that they have done in many parts of Region 2," he said.
Unconventional methods of break-ins associated with the criminal group include entering via man-made tunnels, across roofs, or by renting vacant rooms beside an establishment and boring a hole through its wall.
SIIG, according to Serrano, is an organized crime group which is based in the Cordillera region but operates as far as Cebu and even Mindanao.
The police chief added that members of the gang who were caught always managed to evade the law since their "pool of lawyers have advised them not to bring any firearms so that they can be bailed out whenever they are caught."
Police said they are still hot on the trail of the suspects, who they believe are hiding in nearby Ifugao province.
The pawnshop’s owner, identified as Franny Macasu, has yet to declare the amount of cash and valuables lost in the robbery. - Floro Taguinod, GMANews.TV
