Urn, stolen items recovered; 2 car theft suspects arrested

An urn containing the ashes of a beloved father and other stolen items were recovered in  a church as Cebu City police arrested two men linked to a series of  car lootings  in  Metro Cebu.

The urn was found abandoned in St. Therese Church  in barangay Lahug  along with a laptop, credit cards and other documents stolen from a car parked in A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City, on Saturday.

A church worker  called up the Mabolo police after finding the items in a sealed plastic bag yesterday morning.

PO3 Arnulfo Aventjado said Mabolo police traced its owner  after reading about the stolen  urn in a  Cebu Daily News  report yesterday about the latest victim of the “bukas kotse” gang.

The urn was returned to 54-year-old Eulalia Uy of Consolacion town. The ashes were her father’s, she said.

Mandaue City police said they viewed video  footage of the car  break-in taken by  closed-circuit TV cameras of a nearby business establishment but the images need to be enhanced for clarity.

As this developed,  two men were arrested in relation to the “bukas kotse” cases  in Metro Cebu.

A policeman assigned in Basilan who escorted a mayor to Cebu City was also  robbed of P30,000 cash, a laptop and several items stored inside a rented vehicle in the North Reclamation Area (NRA) yesterday.

The Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) identified the arrested suspects   as  Jonathan “Eric” Espiritu, 29, and a certain Kirk Riscar

Espiritu, a resident of barangay Camputhaw, was arrested near the Sto. Niño Basilica  last Saturday by the Waterfront police.

Riscar, a resident of T. Padilla, was arrested at his home  after Espiritu identified him along with Dennis Riscar, who remains at large.

Espiritu said in an interview that he and his cohorts stole from vehicles parked  by the road while riding in Riscal’s Honda Civic sedan.

Espiritu said he joined the group nearly a year ago in barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.

Yesterday marked Espiritu’s third arrest for theft.

Espiritu said if they wouldn’t  find any valuables inside a vehicle, they  would steal the engine distributor.

He said they used screwdrivers to open the vehicles.

Insp. Ramil Morpos, deputy chief of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) of the Mandaue City Police Office  said they are verifying the involvement of the suspects in other similar robberies.

Chief Insp. Bonifacio Garciano, TRS chief, said Espiritu and Riscar were involved in several car burglaries in Metro Cebu.

Recovered from the suspects were one .9mm pistol owned by a Coast Guard officer.

On the other hand, PO1 Alwalid Jalilul Usalli, who is assigned at the Lantawan municipal police precinct in Basilan province,  reported the loss of valuables from a rented vehicle he was using.

Usalli told Mabolo police he lost his .9mm pistol, his Neo computer netbook and one cellular phone inside a bag while his companion, Majid Aliyul, lost P30,000 cash and one laptop inside the car.

Jalilul escorted the Lantawan mayor to Cebu.  They discovered the theft after they had lunch in a restaurant at the North Reclamation Area. /Jucelle Marie P. Cuyos and Chito Aragon