Guard, needing cash to buy house, nabbed after foiled robbery on bank he was securing

SAN PEDRO CITY—A security guard ended up behind bars after a foiled robbery on the very bank he was guarding in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province early on Monday, Oct. 7, in a desperate attempt to get cash to buy a house, according to police.

Police said Prestige Bank had just opened past 9 a.m. when the guard on duty, Romeo Dimaano Jr., 34, declared a hold-up and ordered bank tellers to stuff his bag with cash.

“At first the tellers thought he was joking,” said Lt. Col. Eugene Orate, Sta. Rosa police chief, in a phone interview. The tellers, Orate said, realized that Dimaano was serious when the guard aimed his gun at the tellers.

One of the tellers, according to Orate, was able to divert Dimaano’s attention by telling the guard to move over nearer the vault. This gave one teller and a client the chance to slip out and seek help.

When police arrived, they found Dimaano pinned on the floor and disarmed already by the bank employees.

No one was hurt but bank employees were visibly traumatized, according to police.

Orate said upon questioning, Dimaano was perspiring profusely and “seemed nervous.” “I asked him why he did it and he said he needed money to buy a house,” Orate said. Maricar Cinco/TSB