IN case you own an apartment or a business stall near a pawnshop or a bank, please double-check the identities of persons who will try to rent your place and easily make a huge rental payment since they could in reality be robbers whose expertise is to dig a tunnel leading to their target specially during holidays when business is closed.

The Philippine National Police headed by Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome issued the reminder yesterday taking note of at least two incidents during the four-day All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day holidays when “tunnel robbers” separately hit two pawnshops in Manila and in Ilocos Sur and carted away nearly P5 million in cash and assorted pieces of jewelry.

Bartolome said that apart from round-the-clock police mobile and foot patrols in the streets particularly this coming Yuletide holidays, they also need the cooperation of owners of banks, pawnshops and other commercial establishments including apartments and business stall in arresting the presence of these thieves.

The PNP chief said installing high-quality CCTV cameras and employing private security guards in these areas will help deter any attempt by so-called “tunnel robbers” since they usually hit unattended targets.

Last June, police in Taytay, Rizal managed to arrest two ‘tunnel robbers’ as they were digging a hole leading to a local Tambunting Pawnshop. A curious tricycle driver alerted barangay and police officials after he saw several suspicious-looking men carrying digging tools near the pawnshop.

Responding officers found the two inside the tunnel they have dug along with an acetylene torch, an oxygen tank, hydraulic jacks and other heavy tools.

PNP spokesman, Chief Supt. Agrimero A. Cruz Jr. said owners of apartment or business stalls located near pawnshops and banks must be aware of the modus operandi being employed by these professional robbers, mostly believed to be jobless miners from the Cordilleras who have shifted their search for gold in the mountains to urban areas where most banks and pawnshops are located.

“Most of our investigations showed that the suspects who are composed of three or more people pretend to be businessmen planning to put up a rice store, an animal feeds’ store or other small business in a commercial stall near a pawnshop or a bank,” Cruz said.