MANGALDAN, Pangasinan, Philippines – The guns were toy replicas, but the attempt to rob a bank was real.
Three boys, aged 11, 12 and 15, were apprehended by police in this town Tuesday after they broke into a bank that was closed for the night and tried to smash open its vault.
Concerned residents alerted the police about the break-in after hearing noise as the boys tried to destroy the vault of the Producers Bank branch on J.P. Rizal Avenue, Poblacion. The bank has no security guard at night.
Sensing that the suspects were armed, the local police called in Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and Special Action Force teams from the provincial police office in Lingayen.
The teams surrounded the bank and ordered the robbers to surrender.
When they emerged, the boys yielded toy replicas of an AK-47 and a caliber .45 handgun. They did not resist arrest.
Police said the three are known as “Palengke Boys†and had been involved in several theft cases.
Police withheld the boys’ names because of their youth. All three are below the age of criminal liability, so they were turned over by the police to the Department of Social Welfare and Development center for children in conflict with the law in Urayong, Bauang, La Union.
No one was reported injured in the incident.