TWELVE tenants of a shopping mall in Barangay Pondol, Balamban town, Cebu were burglarized by a solitary man on Sunday night, Oct. 27, 2019.

At least P80,000 worth of earnings were lost during the incident, police told Superbalita Cebu on Monday, Oct. 28.

P/Maj. Christian Torres, Balamban police chief, said based on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from the mall, a lone man wearing a mask was behind the burglary.

Though he was able to steal money from 12 tenants, the culprit failed to get any from the money remittance center in the mall as its cash was placed in a locked vault.

It was only on Monday morning that the mall management learned about the burglary.

A person of interest, who may have participated in the incident, was taken into police custody and he is a janitor, who has the same build as the culprit caught on camera.

Torres said they are still conducting a thorough review of the CCTV footage. He refused to disclose the name of the janitor pending the result of the investigation.

Never left

The culprit entered the mall through the ceiling.

Police suspected that the janitor was behind the incident as he was the last person who entered the mall at 6 p.m. Sunday. He never left the building even after closing time.

Meanwhile, the mall management is questioning the cost of the stolen cash declared by the tenants as they have a standing agreement that mall tenants are not allowed to leave cash in their stalls after mall hours. (From AYB of SuperBalita Cebu, JKV)