Last year I was able to watch a news report in a Filipino channel about an internet café robbery. The actual incident was shown on television after it was captured through a close circuit camera installed inside the establishment.

There were four robbers and two of them have guns. One of the gunmen points his weapon to an employee while demanding cash from the counter. The other one with a gun stayed on guard at the door, seeing to it that no one escapes while the remaining two collects valuable belongings from more or less thirty customers-mostly teenagers who are playing online games.

That alone did not catch so much of my attention and my reaction was just–well it’s normal nowadays. But now I should say that I am oblige to write about this topic to give awareness and precaution to others, after I was caught in the same situation.

It happened in the first week of January 2011, I think 3 days after the New Year celebration. I was in an internet café at the corner of Roads 1 and 3, Barangay Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City, near the catholic chapel in that vicinity.

At around 11p.m. while I’m listening music using a headset, a guy armed with.38 caliber magnum pistol hastily went inside the café, closed the door and pointed the gun to two lady customers near the door. I can say that based on the culprit’s gestures that he is a newbie to such activity. He was shouting offensive terms to the two ladies while demanding that they hand over their mobile phones and bags.

But even if the guy sounded and looked amateur, I felt fear for several seconds and my heart beat became faster. I was stunned for about five seconds, similar with other customers inside who was like frozen in fear. But then I composed myself and cleared away my tension.

The girls did not easily turn over their belongings to the robber; they are hysterical on begging to the guy to spare their belongings. At that point, I thought of subduing the perpetrator since I also have past trainings in martial arts. But seems like a premonition, I visualized that I was shot at the chest. So I did not execute my plan to subdue the guy.

I also thought of the actual video footage during that time, I remembered the instance were the suspects collected the belongings of the customers. Then my instinct told me to prepare to hand over my mobile phone to the suspect if he asks for it.

The actual robbery took for more than two minutes only, because after the suspect succeeded on taking the mobile phone of one lady and the bag of the other, he hurriedly walked outside. Maybe the rest of us inside the café were just lucky that the suspect was not cruel enough to collect our belongings after he took the ladies’ items. Or as I said, maybe He was also terrified because He is new to that.

After the culprit left, the two ladies couldn’t help but kept on crying. I dialled the police and when they arrive I accompanied the victims to the police station. The ladies were in a state of shock, and actually they hesitated to file their statements and if not because of my encouragement they will not file a statement in the police blotter.

I told the ladies that they should be thankful; the robber took only their belongings-not their lives. My advice to those who will be caught in such situation is to remain calm and cooperate with the perpetrator whenever possible, because some actions may cause bigger troubles. And always report alike incidents to the police even if the suspects were not caught because it will help them in preventing such incidents to re-occur.

Unfortunately the internet café where the robbery transpired do not have close circuit cameras. So for internet café owners, better equip your places with surveillance cameras and it is best if you can hire a security guard.

As to internet café goers, you’d better avoid going during late hours or better choose a place where they have security guards and CCTV cameras. But it is best if you can buy your own computer, and just surf on the internet from home.