Wednesday, August 06, 2008 4th Internet shop theft solved with people's help By Ernie N. Olson, Jr.
A FOURTH major robbery of an Internet shop in Baguio, which was successfully perpetrated in the wee hours of Sunday morning, was solved with the help of concerned citizens.
Witnessed noticed an ongoing Internet shop robbery, and saw the security guard talking with two burglars before the latter started loading the stolen loot into a blue van parked nearby.
The guard was identified in the record of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) as Junie Salongkit Valentin, 21, single, who hails from Alfonso Castańeda, Nueva Vizcaya, and a resident of Km 4, Lubas, La Trinidad, Benguet.
The victimized establishment, Planet Internet Café located at 122 Upper Bonifacio Street, is owned and managed by Gerard Wayway Maspil, 32, married, a businessman, who resides at 35 Holy Ghost Proper, Baguio City.
According to Elvis Canawil Maspil, 23, single, a watcher of Planet Internet Café, he closed and properly locked up the establishment before he went home around 12:30 a.m. of August 3.
However, when he returned to open the place at 9:20 a.m. the same day, he was surprised to discover it was robbed of 18 computer central processing units valued at P270,000 and their cash collections amounting to P1,500.
After this was reported to the police, a team from BCPO Station 7 and a separate scene-of-the-crime operations (Soco) team from the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory responded and processed the area.
When the police interviewed the assigned guard, he claimed not to have noticed any untoward incident during his tour of duty there.
However, when residents of the neighborhood were also interviewed, they reported seeing a blue van of still unknown make and model parked near the robbed Internet café.
When a follow-up probe was conducted by three investigators of BCPO Station 7, several witnesses revealed seeing the guard go near the parked van and converse with its occupants, before two bonnet-wearing men alighted and started loading the computers into the vehicle.
The witnesses said they did not mind the incident at first since the guard knew the men. They said they thought the computers were being transferred by the owners, or that its transfer had their consent.
However, at around 11 a.m. the same day, when they learned the place was robbed, they decided to report what they saw to the establishment's owner three hours later.
When the guard reported for duty that same evening, he was arrested by the police and subsequently detained at the Baguio City Jail on robbery charges, upon the instruction of duty inquest Prosecutor Ruth Bernabe. (ENO)
