QC pawnshop robbers tunneled wrong way

Employees of a Quezon City pawnshop on Monday uncovered a freshly dug tunnel leading to the establishment, indicating a break-in.

But police said the robbery was not consummated as the tunnelers missed the vault and apparently ran out of time once inside Capitol Pawnshop on Abra Street in Barangay (village) Ramon Magsaysay.

Insp. Alan de la Cruz, chief of the theft and robbery section of the Quezon City Police District, said the employees first noticed some floor tiles slightly raised and forming a mound at the shop’s receiving area around noon Monday.

The tunnel was discovered when they removed the tiles.  From there they found some acetylene torches and tanks in the tunnel, which started from a drainage system running by the side of the pawnshop facing Edsa.

Dela Cruz theorized that the burglars had difficulty locating the vault and aborted their operation, noting that they “overshot” or tunneled longer than necessary if their target was the vault.

Police have been patrolling the area since March 6, when four men were seen scrambling out of a manhole in front of Jackman Plaza building along Edsa.

Dela Cruz said witnesses were able to identify two of the men from a rogues gallery provided by the Baguio City police.

A few days earlier, he said, five Ibanag-speaking men were seen hanging around the billiards hall in a building across the shop. They had probably been observing and planning their move on the pawnshop from there, the officer added.