MANILA, Philippines—When she arrived home on Tuesday afternoon, Alma Villanueva of Pasig City was surprised to see the religious statues she kept in her bedroom mysteriously moved and placed outside the house, just below her window.
But far from being miraculous, the statues’ “movement” proved to be a sign that something was wrong.
Villanueva, a resident of Barangay Kalawaan and a store owner at the local public market, lost P350,000 in cash to a burglar who apparently removed the statues from the sill for an unhampered entry through the panel window, according to an investigator.
PO3 Ricardo Allapitan, who received the theft complaint, said Villanueva left her house on Mangga Street around 2:30 a.m. to attend to her business and discovered the break-in upon her return around 3 p.m. The stolen money was taken from the drawer of her bedroom cabinet.
As the doors of the house showed no signs of forcible entry, Allapitan surmised that the thief entered through the window, which Villanueva may have left unlocked.
“All he had to do was move the religious statues out of his way,” the officer added. Jovic Yee