Driver loses high-end van to thieves in QC parking area

Four men seized a high-end van from its driver after he dropped off his employer at a restaurant on Thursday night in Quezon City.

The pearl-white Toyota Super Grandia with conduction sticker TI4736 was forcibly taken by the men at around 8:30 p.m. at the corner of Rosa Alvero and Esteban Abada Streets in Loyola Heights.

Supt. Ferdinand Villanueva of the Quezon City Police District’s anticarnapping unit said the newly bought vehicle was registered in the name of Cecil Padilla of Marikina City.

The police official said he believed the four were also responsible for two other car hijacking cases because of similarities in how they conduct their operations.

The two previous cases involved a Mitsubishi Montero and a Honda Civic.

Villanueva described the suspects to be “fearless professionals” because they did not wear any mask.

The driver of the Grandia, 49-year-old Rodolfo Elfos, said two of the suspects were armed with handguns, and that he would be able to recognize them.

He told police that he had just dropped off Padilla and her family at a Japanese restaurant along Katipunan Avenue and was looking for a parking slot.

After leaving the Grandia along Rosa Alvero Street, the driver walked to a neighborhood store to buy biscuits.

But after he boarded the van on his return, an armed man suddenly entered the vehicle, sat at the passenger seat on his right and poked a gun at him.

The driver tried to get out of the van, but another man blocked his path.

Elfos was brought to the back of the van where another man stood guard over him.

He told police that his shirt was pulled over his head while he was seated at the back.

The driver said the suspects picked up another man along the way.

The suspects dropped him off along Agregado Street, also in Quezon City, after which Elfos reported the loss to authorities.

Villanueva said the driver distinctly heard the suspects, who spoke   with a Visayan accent, call someone on a cell phone, addressing the person they were talking to as “boss” and “sir, ” but did not know the nature of the conversation.