Gang seizes BIR man’s AUV, driver

A car theft gang struck in front of the Bureau of Internal Revenue district office in Quezon City on Friday, seizing an Asian utility vehicle belonging to a BIR employee while it was parked and manned by his family driver.

In his report to the police, the driver, Nestor Alcantara, said he was held at gunpoint and taken on a “joyride” by the suspects around Quezon City and all the way to Bulacan province before he was dropped off on North Luzon Expressway (NLEx).

Alcantara said he was working for Jessie Narvaez, a 43-year-old BIR employee residing in Barangay Sta. Monica, Novaliches, and the owner of the stolen Mitsubishi Adventure (TKQ 276).

Around 9 a.m., he said, his employer was inside the building on Quezon Avenue when four men with .45-cal. pistols forced their way into the vehicle.

He was listening to music inside the Adventure, whose doors were then unlocked, when the suspects seized control and ordered him to move to another seat and keep his head down. One of the suspects then took the wheel and drove off.

During the ride, Alcantara said, he heard one of the suspects addressing another as “sir,” apparently the gang leader.

He said they reached the Regalado, Fairview area in Quezon City before he was dropped off on the southbound lane of NLEx in Marilao, Bulacan. He was later spotted by a Manila policeman who happened to be in the area and brought to the Kamuning police station.

Chief Insp. Enrico Figueroa, deputy commander of the Kamuning police station, said the suspects may have monitored the driver’s daily routine.

“These people don’t attack without a specific target in mind. So they must have conducted surveillance on him,” the official said.

Figueroa said the suspects probably had a backup team, based on Alcantara’s recollection that they made several calls during his brief abduction.