Car stolen in Bulacan recovered by police in Quezon City

A car believed to have been taken by burglars who broke into a house in Bulacan province during the weekend was found parked on Litex Road corner Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City last Monday.

Vendors spotted the Hyundai Accent (PRI 751) which had a flat rear tire at around 4 a.m. but it was not until Tuesday morning when they reported its presence to barangay officials who called up the police.

The owner of the vehicle was identified as Joselito Naguit who earlier reported that thieves broke into his house in Sta. Rita, Bulacan, and made off with more than P1 million in valuables, including the car.

Supt. Ferdinand Villanueva, QCPD District anticar theft unit chief, said that the way the vehicle was stolen was different from the modus operandi of other car theft groups.

“It appears that the initial plan was just robbery [but] the [burglars decided to take the car as well],” he added.

Witnesses said that they saw “a short, stocky man” armed with a shotgun alight from the car and then flag down a taxi which sped away toward the Caloocan area.

Supt. Miguel Atienza, Guiguinto, Bulacan police chief, said that the crime was “not the handiwork of a professional criminal or car thief” because they took only one of the five vehicles parked in the garage of the house they broke into.

Meanwhile, a police official admitted on Tuesday that a number of stolen vehicles still make it through checkpoints in Metro Manila despite a long-standing directive from the National Capital Region Police Office that each vehicle passing through the checkpoint be made to undergo a strict check.

“Many stolen vehicles are not flagged down [at] checkpoints,” Senior Insp. Gaylord Tamayo, chief of Caloocan’s anticar theft unit, said.

He explained that one reason for this is that when the vehicle is being driven by a fellow policeman, those manning the checkpoint simply wave him through.

“Police officers who man checkpoints automatically assume that the police-driver is an upright person. But we have seen that this is not always true,” Tamayo added. With Kristine Felisse Mangunay