Liloan meat shop loses P.8M to three burglars

CEBU, Philippines - A meat shop and convenience store lost more than P800,000 to three unidentified burglars early morning last Monday in Barangay Poblacion, Liloan.

Loreto Ortega Bugtai, 37, of Barangay Catarman, a motorcycle-for-hire driver, and his passenger a certain “Terry” saw the burglars but were unable to alert the police until after the burglars had left.

The three escaped with P810,821 from the store’s vault.

Bugtai was able to describe two of the three burglars; one was 5’6” tall with medium build while the other was skinny and about 5’4” tall.

Insp. Socrates Medillo, Liloan police chief, said the burglars entered the store by destroying the roll-up door with a bolt cutter and wrecking bar.  They then destroyed the vault and took the cash.

During inspection, police recovered a destroyed padlock, coin rack, wrecking bar and the bolt cutter used by the burglars.

Medillo said the store had a close-circuit television camera but it was not in use at the time.

“Naa unta’y CCTV but wala gigamit pwede ra unta to ug adto mi mag-base kay nakuha namo ang identity,” Medillo said.

Medillo has tapped the Crime Scene Investigation of the Cebu Provincial Police Office to assist in the investigation.

Police are also set to invite storeowners Allan Jugalbot, 43, of Barangay Catarman, and John Ramon, 43, of Barangay Poblacion, for questioning to gather more evidence.  –(FREEMAN)