Senate break-in baffles cops

The Pasay City police are investigating the possible motive behind a break-in at the office of Sen. John Osmeña yesterday at the Senate.

But the leader of the Southern Police District-Scene of the Crime Operatives (SPD-SOCO) team that scoured the office for evidence said the intruder did not steal anything, leading her to surmise that it could have been surveillance work.

"It’s still the investigators who can best present theories but from a forensics point of view, I think it was a surveillance job," Senior Inspector Emma Galero told The STAR in a phone interview.

Galero described the footprint she saw on a cabinet near the wall as like that of a child.

She added that the SOCO had taken latent prints from the room and would compare it with those of the senator’s staff and the maintenance personnel who have access into the room.

Galero said a janitress noticed that the glass sliding window, which was already broken, was ajar. The woman first thought the senator’s staff forgot to close it but was alarmed when she saw the footprint, prompting her to alert the staff members.

Galero added that the senator’s telephones were checked for possible wire tapping and the drawers and cabinets, for bombs. All proved negative. – Nikko Dizon, Jose Rodel Clapano