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A busy year for crime and mayhem
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Posted on Dec 31 2008
As the economy tanked, so did peace and order. The CNMI saw a spike in criminality in 2008, witnessing an increase burglary cases, alarming robbery incidents, and deadly vehicular accidents that claimed the lives of nine people. It was also the period when the community saw the first case of murder inside a school campus.
In many burglary cases, the most common items stolen were laptops, jewelries, and DVD players. Aside from schools and commercial establishments, many cars were burglarized. Even gallons of diesel were stolen from tractors at the Saipan Mayor’s Office’s Field Operations Shop. But the most stunning case was the burglary at San Jose Church where a safe containing money was stolen.
The year was greeted with six armed robbery cases, all occurring on Saipan in January. In most cases, the suspects were wearing masks. The victims were poker arcades, tourists, stores, and alien workers walking on the streets.
The robbers struck only once in February, but resumed operations in March. One robber even staged a broad daylight heist at a poker arcade in Sadog Tasi on Good Friday. A 78-year-old man who was sitting outside his home was also robbed.
It was a busy year for robbers as they continued with their mayhem until December. Police, however, busted some suspects, including juveniles.
The entire CNMI community was stunned in November when Efren Ballesteros, a security guard at the Marianas High School in Susupe, was found murdered and robbed inside the MHS campus. The schoolrooms were also burglarized. It took only a couple of days for police to arrest all three juvenile suspects.
It was also in November when three persons died and one was injured when their car slammed into a power pole in front of the Joeten Kiyu Public Library in Susupe.
After two weeks, a woman died and her husband was injured when the car they were driving swerved along Beach Road and slammed into a concrete fence of a residential compound in Oleai. The woman, a Korean, became the 9th fatality in vehicular accidents in the CNMI for the year.
