Bank’s alarm system turns back tunneling thieves in QC

Thieves dug a tunnel to break into a BPI Family Savings Bank branch in Quezon City Friday night but apparently abandoned their plan after setting off the alarm, police said.

The Quezon City Police District’s Masambong Station learned of the attempted burglary from Rodrigo Buluran Jr., assistant manager of the Roosevelt-Muñoz branch, who said he was informed by the BPI main office at 11:17 p.m. that the alarm system at his branch went off.

Investigators later found a hole two feet wide on the bank’s concrete floor, which was one foot thick. The thieves apparently passed first through a sewer line from across the street, broke through the concrete pipe, and dug a tunnel which stretched eight meters from there to get to the bank.

A hydraulic jack, crowbars, hand drills and screwdrivers were also found in the tunnel.

In his report to the police, Buluran said the steel vault and the automated teller machine remained intact and nothing of value was missing in the office.

Insp. Alan de la Cruz, chief of the QCPD theft and robbery section, surmised that the digging did not take more than two days.

The thieves apparently triggered a motion sensor alarm, he said.