Police verifiying reports of ‘Basag Kotse’ gang comeback
The Mandurriao Police Station is verifiying reports on the revival of the operations of the “Basag Kotse” gang in Iloilo City more than nine months after its members were arrested and charged last January.
Senior Insp. Rio Maymay, station commander, said he has received reports on the presence of suspected car thieves in Iloilo City.
Although the gang members are usually “visiting” car thieves, there is information that some locals have joined the “Basag Kotse” operations.
“We are verifying the reports because when we monitored their movements, we have not seen any illegal activity so far,” he said.
However, a car owner said he was recently victimized by car thieves when he parked his vehicle in front of Citi Hardware along Benigno Aquino Avenue in Mandurriao district.
The thieves smashed the right passenger window of his car and he lost a bag containing P600 cash and several bank cards.
“The suspect could have mistaken the bag to have contained a laptop or other valuable items,” Maymay said.
The establishment’s security guard, however, said he has not seen such incident and the victim did not report the incident to them.
Still, Maymay warned car owners to be cautious when parking their vehicles.
“As usual, don’t leave your bags or anything valuable inside the car,” he added.
In Iloilo City, the “Basag Kotse” gang mostly victimized car owners from early part of 2009 until early this year.
Records of the Iloilo City Police Office show 31 cases of car robberies have been reported from February to August 29, 2009 alone.*
