Burglars take wrong turn, trip pawnshop’s alarm

MANILA, Philippines - Burglars attempting to break into a pawnshop in Quezon City Thursday night bore a hole through the wrong part of the shop’s floor, tripping an alarm, police said yesterday.

The burglars were no longer in the GPI Express Pawnshop in Barangay Greater Lagro when the police arrived a few minutes after the alarm went off at past 2 a.m., said Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano.

They left behind tools such as a hydraulic jack, a crowbar and a flashlight, he added.

“They must have been rattled by the alarm that went off,” Albano said in an interview.

Superintendent Dennis de Leon, QCPD Station 5 commander, said the burglars should not have heard the alarm, which is connected by telephone line to the police station.

He said the burglars entered a manhole in the area and crawled through the pipes. However, instead of boring a hole in the floor near the vault, they emerged at a spot away from it. This apparently activated the alarm, De Leon said.