Sweat, pale face give away suspect in P2-M store theft

His actions gave him away.

Police didn’t take long in arresting a grocery worker after he turned fidgety and started sweating while he was being fingerprinted as a robbery suspect, and readily confessed to stealing more than P2 million in cash from his employer.

Rogie Monto, a delivery boy of Triple-D Merchandising, later led the police to his house on Osmeña Street, Riverdale Subdivision in Barangay Parang, Marikina City where he hid the money.

SPO2 Roy Quinito of the Marikina police said they were in the process of getting the fingerprints of at least 30 employees of the store on P. Burgos Street in Barangay Sto. Niño Tuesday noon when they noticed the suspect trembling and perspiring.

When they asked Monto if he was the thief, the 23-year-old quickly confessed to the crime. The money was found hidden under the kitchen sink in his house.

Police community precinct 3 commander Senior Insp. Armando Buban said the suspect decided to report for work on Tuesday because he felt guilty about taking the money from his 66-year-old employer.

Monto, who had been working in the grocery store for four years, told police he hid inside the store’s warehouse on the ground floor when it closed at 7 p.m. on Monday.

He added that before taking the money from a steel cabinet and an antique wooden box in his employer’s office on the second floor, he destroyed the shop’s computers, closed-circuit television cameras and recorders, all located on the ground floor.

The suspect said he used a chisel to destroy the cabinet and the box, and escaped through the fire exit, whose lock he also destroyed.

The robbery was discovered by another employee the following morning when he saw P50 and P100 bills inside a box of noodles labeled “bad order.”

Buban said the suspect admitted he planned to come back for the box later. He also told police that he   had already spent P20,000 of his loot to pay his debts.

Monto said he was forced to steal from his employer because he did not have enough money to support his wife, now five months pregnant, and a four-year-old son.

The suspect is now detained for qualified theft at the Marikina police station.