2 nabbed for robbery inside QC mall toilet

Police arrested two men on Monday for allegedly pulling off a robbery inside the toilet of a Quezon City mall, not by brandishing weapons but by using sheer intimidation and threatening their victim with blackmail.

Senior Police Officer 2 Reginaldo Nicolas of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Quezon City police identified the suspects as Jonathan Lagadya, 24, a resident of Caloocan City, and Mark Cajucom, 32, of Pasig City.

Nicolas said the two were arrested on Monday afternoon after their alleged victim, Ronald Allan Hachero, reported a robbery that took place inside a toilet of Robinson’s Galleria mall.

Hachero, 35, said he was forced to hand over his wallet and cell phone to the suspects after they threatened to create a scandal and expose him to authorities to be a homosexual who refused to pay for “sexual services.”

The complainant said he was alone using one of the toilets at around 4:30 p.m. when the suspects approached him. He was forced to give up his valuables when the suspects, particularly the “burly” Cajucom, made the threats, Hachero further alleged.

After the suspects left the toilet with their loot, the complainant quickly sought help from mall security. Lagadya and Cajucom were later arrested while still inside the mall.

According to Nicolas, the suspects were not armed but used intimidation to get what they wanted. The two had been arrested before on a similar complaint on March 9 from a man who then encountered them at the mall parking lot.

But the suspects were then released without charges after the first complainant backtracked, the officer recalled.

Following Monday’s arrest, the suspects were brought to Camp Karingal to face robbery charges. Recovered from them were Hachero’s P900 in cash, a Certina watch worth P27,000, and a Blackberry mobile phone.