Armed men take SUV, owner for a ride

A bank manager was briefly held by four armed men who took her sport utility vehicle (SUV), P46,000 in cash and other valuables before dawn Wednesday.

Superintendent Emmanuel Tabuena, Marikina deputy police chief, told the Inquirer that the car thieves released the victim after nearly an hour and even gave her P1,000 so that she could go home.

He identified the woman as Sherlyn Rapisura, 35, the manager of a bank based in Taguig City and a resident of Barangay (village) Concepcion, Marikina City.

Case investigator Senior Police Officer 2 Greco Gonzales said that Rapisura was about to park her gray Hyundai Tucson with plate number NQU 971 at the garage of her house at around 3:50 a.m. Wednesday when four men got into the SUV.

At gunpoint, they ordered her to move to the front passenger seat while one of them took over the wheel.

The victim said she noticed a heavily tinted white Honda Civic following them the whole time as they drove from Marikina City to Katipunan Avenue and then C5 Road.

At one point, the armed men stopped at a bank and asked the victim for her automated teller machine (ATM) card.

“[Out] of fear, the victim [did not protest] when the robbers asked for her ATM card and its PIN,” Gonzales said.

The robbers then withdrew P46,000 in cash from her account. They also seized her laptop computer and cell phone.

Less than an hour after they took her, they dropped her off in the C5-Palar area at the boundary of Makati and Taguig City.

“Surprisingly, the robbers handed her P1,000 for her fare and told her she would see her car [again],” Tabuena said.

Although the police have yet to recover the missing SUV, they were hesitant to brand the incident as a car theft case.

They cited the case of another Marikina resident, a businessman in an SUV, who was also briefly held last month by armed men who took the P6,000 in cash he had with him.

The victim was later released in Silang, Cavite, along with his vehicle.

“But we profiled this [new case] under car theft because the vehicle remains missing to this hour,” Gonzales said.

Tabuena added that they were preparing artist sketches of the car thieves while Metro police stations had been alerted to watch out for the stolen SUV in their areas.