Cops extract fingerprints of four bank employees after robbery

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) in Negros Occidental conducted standard fingerprint test last Thursday on four of the six employees, following the robbery incident in a bank in Hinoba-an town last Wednesday.

Police Lieutenant Jaime Dequillo Jr., deputy police chief of Hinoba-an Municipal Police Station, said it is part of the protocol, considering that they do not discount the possibility of an “inside job.”

“This is not to incriminate them to the incident, this is just part of the investigation,” Dequillo stressed.

Dequillo said they are waiting for the signal from the bank management to also allow the two other employees to undergo the same procedure.

He added that they will have to wait for the results from Soco which is expected to be released next week.

It was on Thursday morning when employees discovered that the roll up door of the bank was already opened and an estimated P1.3 million was missing in the cash vault.

Dequillo said they are also trying to look for closed circuit television (CCTV) camera in nearby establishments and houses that might have captured someone that can be linked to the incident.

Dequillo also said they are trying to figure out if the bank’s security alarm and the CCTV malfunctioned or was unserviceable, prior to the incident.

He said they were informed that the CCTV in the bank was turned off. “We’ll have to check basi may na capture man before allegedly gin turn off ang CCTV,” he added.

Initial investigation appeared that there was no forcible entry and that the perpetrator/s passed through the alleged unlocked glass window of the bank.

Also, the cash vault of the bank was not destroyed or damaged, according to the police, an indication that the perpetrator/s might have knowledge on the code of the vault.

He said the bank is currently closed while the employees and the bank management are cooperating in the investigation.