Robbers with Uzi hit remittance shop
Three days after six armed men pulled off a two-minute jewelry heist at a mall in Mandaluyong City, another group of six robbers wielding high-powered firearms held up a money remittance agency in Parañaque City Tuesday morning of P60,000 in cash.
It took the group about a minute to make off with the earnings of the Western Union branch on Dr. A. Santos corner Lopez Drive Avenues, according to city police chief Senior Supt. Billy Beltran. The robbers also made off with the cell phones and wallets of the establishment’s employees and the 9mm firearm of its security guard, Jemecito Diaz, he added.
Beltran said that as the six men who were armed with a baby Armalite, an Uzi submachine gun, a 9 mm and .45-cal. pistols were making their getaway, policemen who had been alerted to the incident by witnesses arrived at the scene.
They failed to apprehend the robbers, however, after one of the six fired at their police car, hitting one of the vehicle’s doors.
Fortunately, none of the three policemen and three barangay (village) watchmen who were with them inside the car was hit although the time they spent seeking cover was used by the armed men to get on their getaway vehicles and escape. A chase ensued but the six men managed to get away.
An initial police investigation showed that two of the six robbers entered the establishment at 10:15 a.m. and posed as customers. Their four cohorts, on the other hand, remained outside and served as lookouts.
After their companions who had gone inside declared a heist, the lookouts disarmed the security guard on duty.
A witness told the police that he saw the six men arrive at the establishment on two motorcycles. He described them as well-dressed and not more than 30 years old.
After parking their motorcycles, two men entered the remittance center while the rest of the group remained outside. One of them later held a gun to the nape of the lone security guard on duty.
The witness said that at this point, he hid behind a vegetable stand in front of the establishment and heard one of the lookouts tell the guard, “This is a holdup.”
After a few more seconds, the witness said he heard the sound of breaking glass and shots being fired. He added that when he peeked to see what was happening, he saw the two men who had gone inside the remittance center come out and fire shots into the air.
He then saw the man who had been holding the security guard at gunpoint push the latter back and fire at an approaching police car.
Police probers said the two men who went inside the establishment were forced to break the glass door with their guns when they found themselves locked in due to the door’s auto-lock mechanism.
The two threatened to shoot the remittance center’s employers unless they opened it but they apparently panicked when they saw the approaching police car. In their haste to get away, they shattered the glass door with their firearms, investigators added.
Beltran, meanwhile, said that one of the six robbers had been identified. “Their [Western Union] records showed one of the suspects making a number of transactions,” he said as he added that a search for the robbers was underway.
