Cabinet not best hiding place for suspect
It probably works during a game of hide and seek, but Richard Udan thought wrong this time.
“His family said he was not home but we found him hiding inside a cabinet,” said Senior Inspector Rosalino Ibay, head of the Manila Police District’s (MPD) anticar theft unit, referring to a suspect arrested over the weekend.
Udan, a 38-year-old truck driver, was one of the five men captured by the MPD in connection with the robbery of a delivery truck carrying P270,000 worth of bottled drinks late last week.
Ibay identified the other suspects as Erwin Duran, 36; Delfin Hifarva, 59; Samuel Angcon, 19, and Arjay Almadra, 24.
The officer said his team received a complaint on Friday from Macs Link Special Services, a distributor of Coca-Cola products, claiming that Udan made off with a red Mitsubishi delivery truck (NRI 649) around 6 a.m.
The truck was later found by the police around 2 p.m. the same day on Macapagal Avenue, Pasay City, but half of its cargo was already gone.
Article continues after this advertisementA manhunt for Udan led to his house in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City, at 11:30 p.m., where he was discovered hiding in a cabinet.
Article continues after this advertisementUdan then led the police to his cohort, truck helper Erwin Duran, who was arrested 5 a.m. Saturday in his home in Pandacan, Manila.
Duran allegedly helped in selling the stolen drinks.
He pointed to a grocery on FB Harrison Street, Pasay City, owned by Gloria Medina, who was not around when the police went there.
But the police arrested Medina’s live-in partner, Hifarva, and two store helpers.
The suspects from the store were charged with violation of the antifencing law, while Udan and Duran were charged with carnapping and qualified theft.
Ibay said a similar incident happened involving Macs Link Special Services on Jan. 12, and intelligence reports also pointed to the Pasay grocery as the buyer of the stolen products.