19-year-old nabbed for bank robbery try in Pangasinan

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Police on Wednesday (Jan. 11) arrested a 19-year-old man who attempted to rob a branch of the RCBC Savings Bank here.

Wilkin Daves Austria gained entry to the bank by chiselling through its wall from an adjoining establishment in the town’s business arcade, said Supt. Jackson Seguin, Lingayen police chief.

Austria had disabled the bank’s alarm control panel and switched off its power, but he still triggered the bank’s alarm system that was monitored by the bank’s Metro Manila-based security personnel, prompting them to call the police here at about 3:10 a.m.Wednesday.

Seguin said Austria entered the business arcade at about 6 p.m., Tuesday, and sat in a coffee shop on the arcade’s second floor. When the coffee shop closed at 9 p.m., he moved to a fitness center gym and hid in the locker room.

When the building closed, Austria moved to a department store on the arcade’s ground floor and began breaking through the wall of the adjoining bank.

“He then attempted to open the bank’s vault but failed,” said Seguin.

The police arrived and searched the arcade for hours, before discovering Austria hiding in a room of a beauty salon early Wednesday.

Found in his possession was a knife and two sachets of suspected shabu.  SFM