Car robbers strike twice in Calamba

Initial investigation also disclosed that at the time of the incident, a roving guard was also assigned to man the area but there were no CCTV cameras installed. (Pixabay photo)

CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – City cops are continuing their probe on two robbery incidents where perpetrators broke car windows known as “basag-kotse” which victimized two foreign nationals in separate incidents in only a week at the parking lots of two malls in this city.

City police chief, Supt. Sancho Celedio, reported on Wednesday that the latest incident involved a 52 year-old Chinese businessman whose car windows were smashed while the vehicle was parked around 9 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the SM City Calamba mall parking lot on Real Street here.

On Nov. 8,  the same modus was also reported by a Singaporean electrical engineer after robbers carted away his passport, laptop and other valuables inside his vehicle parked at a Waltermart parking lot in Barangay Makiling in this city.

Case investigator, Senior Police Officer 1 (SPO1) Nicanor Panghulan, identified the latest victim as Albert Wong, Chinese businessman from Quezon City while the other victim was 60-year-old Singaporean Tang Peck Lam, a professional engineer from Makati City.

Investigation disclosed that Wong parked his Audi vehicle unattended around 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the SM City Calamba parking space and proceeded to the mall for business transaction.

When he returned to the parking area around 9 p.m., Wong discovered that the left window glass of his vehicle was broken and discovered that his car key, house key and cell phone worth PHP 5,000 were missing and reported the incident to the mall guard who in turn called up the police station for assistance.

Latent prints taken from the scene are now subjected to fingerprint examination and AFIS comparison for possible identification of the suspect.

Initial investigation also disclosed that at the time of the incident, a roving guard was also assigned to man the area but there were no CCTV cameras installed.

On the other hand, Tang parked his Toyota Innova in front of the Jollibee fastfood branch in this city’s Watermart-Makiling mall, leaving the car unattended while he took his breakfast around 10 a.m. on Nov. 8.

Tang said he proceeded to Sta. Rosa City for a meeting and later emerged from his meeting only to discover that his laptop and other valuables in the vehicle were missing and the vehicle’s back window was smashed.

He and a colleague went back to the Jollibee parking lot in Calamba City and discovered the broken glass debris scattered at the site where he had earlier parked his vehicle.

The victim said his wallet, Singaporean passport, laptop worth PHP 25,000; remote hard disk worth PHP 20,000: handphone with a Singapore SIM card valued at PHP 10,000; and small bag containing hand tools were stolen.