Store loses P150K worth of cigarettes in burglary

By Jennifer P. Rendon

“Cigarette” burglars struck anew in Iloilo province.

Based on security camera footage, a lone suspect entered the KNR grocery store located at Zone 3, Cabatuan town around 1 a.m. of Dec. 4.

The robber entered the store by destroying its padlock.

Captain Dionisio Estacio, Cabatuan police chief, said the suspect used a bolt cutter to destroy the padlock.

The suspect then took 2 boxes of assorted cigarettes valued at around P150,000 and assorted coins worth around P20,000.

It was around 7:10 a.m. on Monday when spouses Ronald Luansing and Mary Grace Luansing, the grocery store owners, discovered the burglary.

Estacio is not discounting the possibility that the suspect had a companion and a getaway vehicle.

“But unfortunately, the barangay’s CCTV cameras are not functional. We will try to look for other CCTV cameras that might have caught the suspect/s before and after the incident,” he said. Estacio is also entertaining the possibility that the suspects in the latest robbery are the same persons who also burglarized a store in Zarraga town on Nov. 18.

Just like in Cabatuan, the suspects also ransacked the Delmond Trading Center located at Bangga Bante, Barangay Jalaud Norte, Zarraga, at past 1 a.m.

The three padlocks on the store’s gate were missing and so was the padlock on its folded front enclosure.

Upon inventory, the store declared that reams of cigarettes amounting to around P100,000 were missing.

The store, owned by Redilla Pedregosa of San Vicente Subdivision, Leganes, Iloilo, claimed they also lost five bottles of Fundador Lights brandy amounting to P1,475, cash amounting to around P3,000 and coins in different denominations.

Another store, also in Jalaud Norte, Zarraga, was also looted with different brands of cigarettes amounting to around P500,000.