|
Saturday, September 17, 2005
2 shops lose P100T in cell phones to ‘con man’
By Mia E. Abellana
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Nearly P100,000 worth of brand new cell phones were lost to a 25-year-old man who bought them using fake credit cards.
Police arrested Alex Peralta yesterday noon when he returned to an establishment he conned the day before.
SPO2 Elmo Rosales said they are unsure as to Peralta’s true identity because when they asked him what his real name was, he gave them four different names: Alexander Santos Peralta, Alex Peralta, Steve Peralta and Steven Diaz Alejo.
However, when Sun. Star Cebu asked him, he said his real name is Alex Peralta while the rest were his “nicknames.”
A sales clerk for Tele-tec, a cell phone shop at the Belvic Complex on Gen. Maxilom Ave., Cebu City, called up the Fuente Police Station after recognizing him as the one who bought several cell phones using fake credit cards the day before.
Police arrested him inside the store.
Chief Insp. Jonathan Abella, Fuente Police Chief, told Sun.Star Cebu that Teletec only realized that their customer used a fake credit card yesterday when they got a call from the bank.
But when Peralta entered the store again at noon, they knew better than to let him slip away.
Abella said Peralta had other companions in the store beside Teletec, but were able to flee when they noticed police arrest Peralta.
Admission
Teletec and Interstar, the other store, lost a total of P96,955 cash.
Teletec lost two Nokia 6600 units, two Nokia 1100 units and a Nokia 3120 cell phone.
Interstar also showed receipts that Peralta took a Nokia 6600, a Nokia 3230, Sony Ericsson T290i and a Nokia 7260.
Rosales said Peralta took his time before he admitted that he and three companions checked in at the Fuente Pension House on A.C. Llorente St.
When police arrived about 1 p.m. for a follow-up, they were told that the three had checked out two minutes before.
SPO2 Rosales said it was possible they were still in Cebu because they kept on sending him text messages.
Alias
Peralta had credit cards from the Standard Chartered Bank, Commonwealth Bank, the Bank of New Zealand and Westpac bank, bearing different names from the ones he provided police.
He denied he was a member of a fake credit card syndicate, saying he just picked all six fake credit cards from the ground and decided to try them out by buying new stuff.
A straight-edged driver’s license and a Korean certificate of alien registration taken from him bore the name Steven Diaz Alejo.
Asked why he said his real name was Alex Peralta when he had a different name on his driver’s license, he said that Steven Diaz Alejo was his nickname.
Abella said that they still have to verify with the Land Transportation Office if the license was authentic.
Peralta also said that the Korean certificate of alien registration was just something he had made for himself.
Abella told Sun.Star Cebu that Peralta impressed the sales clerks by telling them he was a reporter for a television network in Manila.
In another store, he showed documents that his parents were in the US.
Abella also revealed that Peralta’s companion, a woman, was arrested in Dumaguete City last week.
(September 17, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
