Armed men rob two pawnshops in downtown Cebu City at past 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 8. | Screenshot from contributed video via Paul Lauro
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Two neighboring pawnshops along Calderon Street in downtown Cebu City were robbed by six armed men on Thursday morning, August 8.
Shortly after the robbery, police identified one of the robbers and are now conducting a hot-pursuit operation.
The incident happened at past 11:00 a.m. on Thursday.
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Three men, wearing helmets, can be seen ransacking the jewelry display while another man pushed the customers to crouch on the floor.
It took only a few seconds for the robbers to shove the pieces of jewelry inside bags before they immediately left.
Gerald Ajias, an employee of one of the pawnshops, told reporters that it only took 10 seconds for the robbers to take the jewelry from the first pawnshop they robbe before they moved to the store next door.
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In an interview with Alan Domingo of GMA 7’s Balitang Bisdak, he said that their store had no security guards.
Ajias added that they estimated that P10 million worth of assorted jewelries were stolen from their pawnshop.
Police Colonel Antonietto Cañete, acting city director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), for his part, said that the robbers fled on their getaway vehicles heading to the south direction.
Cañete also said that there were around six suspects involved who were carrying firearms.
Cañete said that the suspects victimized two of the neighboring pawnshops in front of a university in the area.
Some of the men went inside while two others stayed outside by the sidewalk as lookouts .
Out of the six robbers, police have identified one individual and are now hunting him down.
Cañete said that they were also reviewing the CCTV footage from the establishments involved as part of their investigation.
As of this writing, they are still conducting an inventory to determine the total worth of stolen goods.