A watchman was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of being involved in the theft of more than P3 million from a Quezon City pawnshop.
The suspect was identified as Santos Nogas, who was arrested on Thursday noon at his home in Veterans Village.
Senior Insp. Edilberto Nicanor, deputy chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said the security guard was employed by Cutting Edge Security and Investigation Agency Inc.
Police said Santos could be one of those behind the burglary at the Tambunting Pawnshop branch on the corner of Panay Avenue and Scout Borromeo Street in Barangay South Triangle on Thursday,
Nicanor said they are also looking for Santos’s brother Eulogio, also a watchman at the same agency, and three other men allegedly involved in the burglary.
Pawnshop branch manager Rosalie Ladra Dalusong told police that their establishment lost 166 pieces of jewelry worth P3,318,600 and P83,033.95 in cash.
The pawnshop’s employees discovered the burglary when they opened the shop at around 8 a.m. on Thursday.
The burglars apparently dug a hole in a wall behind the shop to be able to enter the establishment.
Case investigator PO3 Johnny Mahilum said the burglars used the vacant office space next to the pawnshop from where they could dig the hole.
Police recovered the tools left behind by the suspects such as a small acetylene tank, a hand drill, screw driver, hydraulic jack, metal hacksaw, crow bar, shovel and a small stove.
A night guard of the pawnshop told policemen that he noticed a green Tamaraw FX parked in front of their building on Wednesday night.
Another watchman, German Omaque, recalled seeing the suspects entering and leaving the empty office space next to the pawnshop.
Santos’s brother, Eulogio, was posted by the empty office space on that night according to the police. Omaque claimed he saw Eulogio talking to the unidentified men.
Santos then arrived and spoke with his brother and the unidentified suspects as well, the witness said.
The suspects were later seen boarding the Tamaraw FX at around 11:30 p.m.
One of the men was seen carrying a large backpack, police said.