TUGUEGARAO CITY — A well secured vault and active alarm foiled a robbery attempt on East West Bank located at College Avenue, Centro 8, here early Sunday morning.
Police Supt. George Cablarda, city police chief, said that the robbery attempt started at about 12:46 AM to 1:30 AM by unidentified perpetrators. Prior to the discovery, received a call from Ferdinand Villegas, in-charge of Monitoring Security Center of East West Bank based in Metro Manila informing that the alarm of East West Bank Tuguegarao City Branch rang/activated at centralized monitoring center in Manila and further informed that a lone person was seen from the centralized CCTV monitoring camera inside the bank, particularly near the vault.
Cablarda immediately responded and secured the bank. At about 1:30 AM of same date, the bank manager named Romel Melad, 43 years old, married, a resident of Cataggaman Viejo, Tuguegarao City arrived and opened the main door of the bank. After which, the team and the manager conducted ocular inspection, particularly at the vault situated at the south western most portion of the bank.
They saw a dug hole in the flooring probably connecting to the drainage which serves as an entry and exit point of the suspect/s but fortunately, the suspects failed to penetrate the vault because it is secured with steel bars..
Police recovered a hydraulic jack, a crowbar,a flashlight, a plier, a flat screw driver, a steel saw and a piece of wood. Policealso lifted latent finger prints at the crime scene.
Cablarda called on banks and big establishments in cities and highly urbanized areas to stay vigilant in order not to be victimized by robbers operating in Region 2. (Simeon Dilan/PNA)
