A man robbed a store and pretended to be the owner
TAGUIG CITY – A 20-year-old man was arrested on Friday night after allegedly robbing a store and stealing a cellphone in Tipas.
Caught on CCTV, the suspect was seen peeking through the gate Friday noon. It was also visible how he figured out how to open the gate from the inside. After a few seconds, he opened it but didn’t enter immediately upon noticing a customer in the store.
When the customer left, he entered the house. The suspect took a cellphone worth P6,000 and P500 in cash from a bag inside the store. According to the Fort Bonifacio Police, they brought the suspect to their station after he parked the motorcycle he was riding in a spot where motorcycles are not allowed to park in Bonifacio Global City.
When asked for the relevant documents, the suspect could not present any. “Upon background investigation, mayroon siyang mga previous na mga warrant, may mga kaso na carnapping, theft. Mayroon siyang other forms of trespass and illegal gambling,” Police Captain Rizalie Tadeo of BGC Police said.
The police also noticed that the suspect couldn’t unlock the cellphone he allegedly planned to use to call his relatives. The suspect’s identity matched the one captured on CCTV based on his attire and the color of the motorcycle when he committed the crime.
Meanwhile, store owner Amy Naval was surprised when she returned home at around 3 p.m. and found their gate open. She immediately searched for her cellphone in her husband’s bag but couldn’t find it. Naval added that the suspect even sold coffee to a customer to avoid suspicion of stealing from inside the store, according to witnesses.
The suspect’s defense was that he committed the crime because he needed money to go home to their province. When asked how he knew there were valuable items in the store, he said, “nakita ko lang.” The P500 cash was not recovered, but the police recovered the cellphone. The police continue to investigate who owns the motorcycle the suspect was driving, which is involved in a theft complaint.
