4 men rob QC gas station

Four men, three of whom were armed, declared a heist after posing as customers at a gasoline station in Quezon City before dawn yesterday.

The suspects took away P20,000 from the cashier of Metro Energy Gas station along Kalayaan Road in Barangay Central, according to Superintendent Aspirinio Cabula, commander of the Quezon City Police District-Station 10.

Cabula told The STAR they were currently tracking the suspects, who he said “came from Manila.”

One of the suspects carried a .9mm handgun with a marking of the Philippine National Police, Cabula said.

He said another one held a.38 caliber revolver while a third suspect also had a .9mm handgun.

At around 4:30 a.m. yesterday, the four suspects arrived at the gasoline station on a Honda Wave motorcycle posing as customers.

The suspects then declared the heist after the motorcycle was loaded with fuel.

Cabula said there was no security guard at the gasoline station when the heist happened. “We believe the suspects targeted just the earnings at the cashier and not the money stored in the vault,” he said in an interview.

After getting the money, the suspects rode the motorcycle until they reached the corner of Kalayaan and V. Luna Roads, where three of them transferred to a waiting taxicab.

Based on the account of the employees, the suspects had been doing a surveillance of the gasoline station days before the heist.

“They (employees) said the same customer had been there twice asking if the CCTV (closed-circuit television) camera was working,” Cabula said.

 “They should have informed us about those incidents,” he said, noting the police would have provided additional security or put in place other measures to prevent the robbery.