New guard tips off cops; robbers of imported perfume nabbed

Through a tip from a recently hired security guard, four robbers — whose group modus operandi include befriending security guards and employees — were arrested along with their loot of assorted perfume worth more than half a million in Mandaluyong City on Wednesday morning.

A report reaching Chief Supt. Romulo Sapitula, Eastern Police District director, said the four suspects had already brought out the perfume from the Scent and Beaute Inc.-Rockwell Branch on Kalinisan Street in Brgy. Plainview to their black Toyota Vios with plate number ABL 3577  when they were nabbed  around 2 a.m. by a team led by Mandaluyong Police Community Precinct 2  station commander Senior Insp. Celso Humilde.

The suspects were identified as Leophel Arot, 22,  and Ronald Rivera, 27, of General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite; Cedrik Homo, 24, of Makati City; and Ramil Mercede, 27, warehouse man of Scent and Beaute Inc. and a resident of Las Piñas City.

The stolen loot include several boxes of imported perfume like Calvin Klein amounting to P666, 528.

Humilde said Indian national Chatru Jeswani, the president and owner of the perfume firm, told probers several items have been stolen from them several times in the past prompting them to change their security agency.

New security guard

Police suspected a possible inside job when the new security guard Ronan Romano of Tarsier Security Agency took over and informed the police about an upcoming robbery, Humilde said.

“What happened was almost like an entrapment operation. The security guard assisted the robbers but the latter did not know we already got information from the security guard,” he added.

“Their modus include befriending the security guards and employees, even  offering them a ride home until they become friends.  The new guard was good.  He resisted a promised and possible share of P40,000,”  Humilde told the Inquirer.

In previous  robbery attacks, the robbers would turn off the closed-circuit television cameras, Humilde added.

Humilde said qualified theft charges will be filed against Mercede as he was an employee who helped facilitate an “inside job” while the three will  be charged with theft.

The Mandaluyong Police are now looking into the possibility that the former guards from past agencies might have something to do with previous robberies inside the shop.