Police eye inside job angle in Liloan pawnshop robbery

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police are investigating if the pawnshop robbery in Liloan town on Monday, February 4 was an inside job.

Senior Police Office (SPO1) Jonas Catubig of the Liloan Police Station told Cebu Daily News Digital in a phone interview on Tuesday, February 5, that the robbers knew where the security camera was placed, and that was the first thing they destroyed when they robbed the pawnshop.

Catubig was referring to Monday’s noontime robbery of the Palawan Pawnshop outlet in Sitio Kapulay, Barangay Tayud, Liloan town in northern Cebu where five men, two of them armed with guns, stole P40,000 from the pawnshop. 

Catubig also said that the five robbers were apparently neophytes but they also employed a new way to threaten the workers, so that they would open the door to their side of the counter.

Catubig said two of the robbers poured gasoline on the counter and threatened to light the gasoline, start a fire, and trap the three employees on the other side of the counter if they would not open the small entrance at the side of the counter.

When they gained entry on the employees’ side of the counter, two robbers, who were armed with KG9 and .45 caliber pistols, promptly destroyed the CCTV and then took the P40,000 inside the drawers.

The three other cohorts, cornered the security guard disarmed him, and took the guard’s service firearm, a 9 mm pistol, with them when they fled.

It took only a few minutes for the five robbers to implement the heist.

After taking the P40,000 cash from the pawnshop cashier, then they fled on two motorcycles.

The cashier and the two other pawnshop employees, who were there when the heist happened, said that they were cooperating with the police investigation.

The cashier said that she was still traumatized by the incident.

Chief Inspector Danilo Colipano, acting Liloan Police Station chief, said that  they were continuing with their investigation and were trying to identify and arrest the robbery suspects.

Colipano said that they had also coordinated with the neighboring towns to help them identify the suspects. |dbs