QC businessman loses P3M in valuables to robbers

Four armed men broke into the house of a businessman in Quezon City on Sunday morning, tied up the two house helpers and took at least P3 million worth of valuables.

The police said the robbers left untouched two luxury vehicles parked at the garage but did not spare the expensive watches, several pieces of jewelry, a desktop computer, even the shoes of the homeowner, Mario Buela.

Case investigator SPO1 Eric Lazo said the break-in happened at 10 a.m. on Sunday while Buela and his family were out of their house in Barangay (village) Laging Handa.

According to Buela, he lost Rolex, Hermes and Technomarine watches, six pairs of earrings, two gold bracelets, four bracelets, two rings, a Balenciaga bag, three pairs of shoes and an Apple iMac computer.

The valuables were initially estimated to be worth at least P3 million. The robbers, however, ignored a Lexus and a Porsche parked in the garage.

Police investigators said they were able to get fingerprints which would be checked against existing records to help them identify the robbers.

At the time of the break-in, only family driver Rey Ratilla and house helper Trinidad Laforteza were at home.

Ratilla was cleaning one of the cars when two men suddenly entered the garage through an unlocked gate and told him they were looking for a man named “Eric.”

Insp. Alan de la Cruz, theft and robbery section chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said the robbers’ entry caught Ratilla by surprise.

At gunpoint, they forced him and Laforteza who was doing the laundry to go inside the house where they were herded into a bathroom on the second floor.

The two were tied up while the robbers were joined by two other men who forced open the door to the master’s bedroom, which they ransacked.

Ratilla and Laforteza later managed to untie themselves and after making sure that the robbers were already gone, they reported the incident to barangay officials.