Mall ‘burglars’ hide in ceiling pipe

A FASTFOOD outlet was burglarized, and would have lost P170,000 inside one of the malls in Cebu City yesterday.

The two burglars, one of them a minor, were arrested by the mall’s security guard a few minutes after the outlet’s manager found the money inside the cash drawer missing.

The incident was discovered at 10:20 a.m. inside Jolibee in SM Department Store in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.

The suspects, Jetson Sueles, 31, and John (name withheld for being a minor), 17, were arrested by the SM security department after trying to hide in the exhaust pipe in the ceiling.

Dennis Bacus, Jollibee assistant manager, said that when he noticed the money was missing inside the cash drawer, he quickly called the security department for help.

When the security arrived at the outlet on the third floor, they noticed traces of dirt, which led to where the suspects reportedly hid.

The cash amounting to P167,104 was recovered from the suspects.

Sueles and John were then brought to the Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).

PO2 Reynaldo Labating of the TRS said they will still have to investigate further on how the suspects were able to get the money.

“Dili pa man maningog ang mga suspects, amo pa ni sila imbestigaron (The suspects won’t talk yet, we still have to investigate them),” said Labating.

Sueles and John are reportedly from Naga City, Cebu.

“Amo tan-awn kung naa pa bani silay nabiktimang lain (We still have to check if they had other victims),” added Labating.

He said they received reports that another fastfood outlet inside the mall was recently victimized in the same manner.

The two suspects are currently detained at the CCPO stockade.

A case of robbery will be filed against them.