Rich woman conned by 3-person gang
An 80-year-old woman fell victim to the notorious budol-budol scheme in Muntinlupa City, with the suspects carting away P1.5 million in cash and undetermined amount of jewelry, police reported today.
The victim was identified as Mercedes Grindstaff, a resident of Hongkong St, Hawaii Circle, Better Living Subd., in Paranaque City.
Initial investigation revealed that the incident occurred between 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) branch located at Unioil Building on Acacia St., cor. Commerce Avenue, Madrigal Business Park, Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa City.
According to the report, the victim was first approached by an unidentified woman in SM Bicutan, Taguig City who feigned cluelessness and asked for directions. The female suspect eventually convinced the victim to accompany her to their car where his two other companions (a male and a female) were waiting.
During the ride, the female suspect (the one who approached the victim) asked help from her on how to withdraw money from the bank using a bankbook. After a long conversation and sweet-talks, the suspects were able to persuade the victim to show her bankbook. After which they headed to the BPI Bank in Madrigal Business Park to withdraw money from her account.
The victim was accompanied inside the bank by the woman who approached her earlier and after withdrawing P1.5 million from her account, they went back to the car in which the said woman persuaded the victim to hand over to her the money and the victim's jewelry.
Allegedly, the same woman placed the cash and the jewelry inside a purple shoulder bag and then it was handed over to the victim. After several minutes, the victim was dropped off by the suspects at Jollibee Molito Complex, Madrigal Business Park at which they instructed her to wait for them.
Several hours passed, but the suspects did not show up. Thus, the victim decided to open the bag and to her surprise, the bag contains two bundles of folded grade 4 writing pad wrapped in a green eco bag.
When she realized that she had been tricked by the suspects, she immediately reported the incident to Police Community Precinct 5 (Ayala-Alabang) and sought police assistance to recover her money.
Personnel of Muntinlupa assisted the victim and conducted follow-up for the possible recovery of the loot and for the identification and arrest of the suspects but yielded negative results.
Probers conducted an initial investigation and will be coordinating with the management of BPI Bank Madrigal Branch for a soft copy of the CCTV footage of the said bank for the immediate identification and arrest of the suspects. (Dhel Nazario)
Cop attacked by motorized tandem
Two men, including a police officer, were injured in the latest attack by motorcycle-riding assailants in Caloocan City Saturday morning, a belated report said.
Investigators identified the victims as PO2 Allan Palaming, 42, assigned at Manila Police District Headquarters Unit, and Rex Librando, 38, junk shop owner, both residents of Barangay 120 in Caloocan.
Initial investigation showed that Palaming was standing in front of Librando's junk shop along Rizal Avenue when two men on board a motorcycle appeared around 9 a.m.
The back rider then alighted and tried to get Palaming's firearm. However, the cop refused, prompting the suspect to fire several times, hitting Palaming's shoulder and back.
Librando, who was inside his junk shop, was hit by stray bullet in the body.
The suspects sped off while the victims were brought to Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center.
Recovered from the scene were two empty shells and a deformed slug of a still unknown caliber of firearm. (Kate Javier)