FILE PHOTO
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Police said here Wednesday they believed the 10 armed men who pulled a heist at a jewelry store inside the SM City Mall here by breaking the glass of its shelves on Tuesday were still in the city although authorities said they had no clues yet on the robbers’ identities.
The robbers bought hammers and vice grips from SM’s Ace Hardware before barging into the M. Lhuillier jewelry store around 7:10 p.m. Tuesday and using the metal tools to smash the shop’s glass display shelves, Cagayan de Oro police chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares told reporters.
Mijares said the video recorded by the mall’s closed-circuit television camera showed that six of the men, who were armed with guns, posted themselves outside the jewelry store after disarming the guards at the west entrance of the mall, while the four other men smashed the display shelves at the jewelry shop and emptied them of their contents.
They also took a still undetermined amount of cash from the jewelry store, he said.
He said one of the robbers struck M. Lhuillier’s female security guard, Ellah Solaron, in the head before the group fled in waiting vehicles.
Inspector Ariel Phillip Pontillas of the crimes against persons and property desk said the robbers obviously belonged to a well-organized crime group.
They were able to perpetrate the crime unmolested, considering that SM is touted to be a highly secured business establishment, Pontillas pointed out.
The strike was unheard of in Mindanao until Tuesday evening. Similar robberies had taken place in Metro Manila several times in the past,
Pontillas said the police did not have any idea what group the robbers belonged to.
“The police are searching across the city for the suspects because we believe they are still holding out in the city,” he said.
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