Hijacked truck fails to start

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines  – Eight hijackers wearing T-shirts with police logo were forced to abandon a truck loaded with 25 tons of steel bars they had intercepted in Guiguinto, Bulacan last Tuesday when the engine failed to start.

It turned out that the truck driver was able to trigger a device that prevented the engine from starting, police said.

Police said the hijackers who were aboard a van blocked the truck, whose steel bar load was estimated to cost some P600,000 and was to be delivered to Aparri, Cagayan, as it was on its way to the North Luzon Expressway.

The hijackers dumped the truck driver and his companion in Mexico, Pampanga, but took their cell phones and P7,000 in cash.

Police said the hijackers left the loaded truck in the same place where they had intercepted it, after failing to start the engine.