Robbers strike across Mandaue SWAT office
Robbers posed as customers and entered the e-gaming establishment without being frisked by the guard at the City Time Square in Mandaue City. (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)
Armed men took P1,951,051 from an electronic bingo (e-bingo) casino establishment owned by Koreans at the City Times Square in Mandaue City at 1:40 p.m yesterday.
The robbery of the “8 E-Bingo Club” took place across the street from the police Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) in Parkmall.
A security guard of the electronic casino went to the SWAT office to report the robbery at 2:14 p.m.
SPO1 Alen Carado said closed circuit TV camera footage showed that the robbers posed as customers and entered the club at past 1 p.m.
The club has eight CCTV cameras.
At 1:52 p.m. two of the men stood up and approached 28-year-old cashier Giecelle Cutor, poking a gun at her.
The robber wore a ball cap and green polo shirt. He took the cash, representing tax payments and three days worth of earnings from Cutor at the cashier’s booth.
LOOKOUT
After placing the money inside a carton, the robber also took cash from the vault.
A cohort in a white shirt came to the cashier’s booth again and took the mobile phones deposited there.
A total of P794,137 was taken from the cashier’s booth while the robbers took P1,156,914 from the vault.
READ: P2.8M casino heist
Two other men had earlier disarmed Marlon Conde, a 24-year-old security guard of KJF Security Agency.
The robbers ordered four other employees and three clients to get inside the restroom where they were locked up. One robber acted as a look out.
CAHOOTS
A security guard of City Times Square, Jose Torrejas of EastWest Central Security Agency, approached two motorcycle riders who waited outside the club, not knowing that they were in cahoots with the robbers.
“Naa man mga plate number pero wala lang ko katimaan,” (they have plate numbers but I can’t remember),” Torrejas said.
He said three men rode on each motorbike. They had no crash helmets.
The other security guard Conde walked several meters to the SWAT office at Parkmall to report the robbery later at 2:14 p.m.
SPO1 Carado said he spotted two .45 pistols and one KG-9 gun used by the robbers based on the video footage.
INSIDE JOB?
Acting Manager Mariefel Beato said the club opened in July last year and was owned by a Korean company. This was the first time they were robbed, she said.
Seven personnel and a lone security guard were present yesterday.
Marissa Bongcas, the treasury head, told police that they noticed several men taking turns exchanging their P20 bills to P100 bills to Cutor last Sunday evening.
“Mao siguro to mga tawhana kay motan-aw man sa sulod sa cashier’s booth (They might be the suspects since they were trying to take a look inside the booth),” Bongcas said.
SP01 Carado, who asked for a copy of the camera footage, said they will look into the possibility of an inside job.
He said the guard failed to frisk the customers for firearms before they entered.
Carado said basic security protocols require any firearms to be deposited first before a person is allowed to enter any establishment.
SWAT: WE WERE ON PATROL
The Mandaue SWAT office notified all police units to pursue the robbers of the bingo joint who were headed to barangay Subangdaku but it was too late.
SPO1 Alvin Caballes of the SWAT said they had personnel patrolling Times Square and Parkmall about 1 p.m. with a K9 sniffing dog.
“Maybe our presence was monitored by the robbers,” he said.
He said establishments in both commercial areas have the telephone hotlines of police stations. He wondered why they instead called 166 asking for police assistance in Cebu CIty.
The SWAT chief of Mandaue Inspector Jose Lidawa was not immediately available for comment.