Woman robbed, tied up in Banilad mall’s parking lot

A WOMAN was robbed by an ice pick-wielding man in a mall parking lot yesterday in Cebu City then was tied up and left inside her vehicle until she was able to call for help.

Elvira Ubas, 35, of barangay Tabok, Mandaue City, had just withdrawn cash from ATM machine and was heading for her white Ford Everest in the Gaisano Country Mall parking lot at 10:30 a.m.

Ubas unlocked the SUV doors from afar using a remote control.

The holdupper slipped inside and hid in the backseat as soon as the doors opened.

Once the victim was inside, the holdupper threatened to harm her if she didn’t follow his orders. He pressed an ice pick on her shoulder.

Police said the robber then tied the woman’s wrists with cloth strips, took her P10,000 cash, gold bracelet and a pair of silver earrings then fled on foot.

SPO2 Rommer Barona of the Theft and Robbery Section said the woman suffered puncture wounds in the shoulder where the holdupper poked an ice pick.

The woman used her elbows to honk the car horn but no one came to help until she managed to press the car controls to lower her window and call out to a motorist for help.

Barona said as soon as the victim, who was shaken up by her experience, is ready, police will ask her to go over police photo files of possible suspects.

Earlier this year, police held security seminars with commercial establishments with big parking areas where cases of robberies are high. Correspondent Chito Aragon