Tunneling thieves pull off QC heist on second try

Some eight months after their initial attempt to rob a pawnshop in Quezon City by digging a tunnel was thwarted, a group of robbers went back to the establishment and completed the job.

At 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, employees of the Capital Pawnshop on Abra Street, Bago Bantay, called up the police to report the theft of almost P700,000 worth of cash and jewelry.

Masambong police station commander Supt. Pedro Sanchez said the burglary could have been prevented had the establishment’s security guards taken seriously the information given by a resident in the area two days before.

“They were told about [noise] which sounded like metal striking stone [but] it was not reported to the police or barangay officials. We could have looked into the previous tunnel dug from the drainage system near the pawnshop and prevented [the theft],” he said.

Capital Pawnshop area manager Roberto Roxas told the police the burglars took from the vault more than P243,000 in cash and P443,000 worth of pawned jewelry.

Sanchez said that sometime in March, thieves tried to break into the establishment by digging an underground tunnel although their efforts were thwarted. This was after the hole caused changes in the floor tiles, which were noticed by pawnshop workers, leading to the discovery of the tunnel underneath.

Following Wednesday’s burglary, Sanchez said his men found an acetylene tank, a hose, a torch, a pointed iron rod, a tire jack, several tools and a pair of black rubber gloves in the same tunnel.

He added that the pawnshop owner had told him that the hole beneath the establishment had been filled up but the robbers managed to reopen it.