5 armed men rob residents of boarding house

Five armed robbers barged on Tuesday night inside a boarding house in Quezon City, robbing the residents of electronic gadgets and nearly P30,000 cash. It took only 15 minutes for the thieves who were armed with handguns, blades and a grenade to herd the victims into a room and ransack the boarding house. Quezon City Police District Masambong station commander Senior Supt. Pedro Sanchez said the robbery happened at 9 p.m. on Tuesday at a two-story house on Alley 25 in Project 6. According to Sanchez, the robbers simply walked through the  gate of the boarding house which was wide open and once inside, robbed the stunned tenants.  Eight of the 12 tenants were standup comics while the rest worked as hotel service masseurs. Taken from them were almost P30,000 in cash; laptop computers; mobile phones; iPods; and automated teller machine cards. The robbers then fled in a sport utility vehicle. Sanchez said that there was an incident two months ago where armed men used the same mode of operation of barging into a house and robbing the occupants. The gate had also been left open because of the irregular hours kept by the tenants. He told the Inquirer that the robbers apparently knew that the gate to the boarding house would be open at that time. Jeannette I. Andrade