Acetylene gang hits money transfer office

Police are hunting down members of the Acetylene robbery gang that burglarized a money transfer branch office and an express billing center before dawn yesterday in Valenzuela City.

The Western Union money transfer office at 323 McArthur Highway in Barangay Karuhatan and the adjacent Bayad Center were ransacked by still unidentified members of the rob gang.

PO2 Exequiel Sangco said that the Bayad Center, which accepts payments for electricity and other utilities, lost more than P85,000 in cash placed inside an office drawer while the Western Union lost a caliber .38 revolver and bullets locked inside the office vault.

Sangco said that the suspects first entered the Western Union office by drilling a hole on a wall facing a vacant lot.

Using an acetylene torch, the burglars opened the firm’s vault that contained no cash except for the security guard’s caliber .38 service firearm and 17 live bullets.

The suspects proceeded to hit the adjoining Bayad Center office by also creating a hole on the cemented wall that separated it from the Western Union office.

According to Hernando Salvador, owner of the Bayad Center branch, they lost more than P85,000 to the suspects.

PO2 Hoover Ireneo said the burglars left behind several drilling tools, including two crow bars, two screwdrivers, a hand drill, an iron bar, and an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) tank.

Police said the break-in could have occurred between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and was only discovered at around 7:30 a.m. when Western Union guard Fermin Bragais, 33, of the Champ Security Agency, reported for work yesterday.

The burglary occurred a week after five armed suspects robbed the Banco de Jesus rural bank on McArthur Highway in Barangay Marulas of around P200,000 in cash.