AT LEAST three women members of a Budol-budol gang are at large after they victimized a school teacher on Monday afternoon, April 24, 2023.
The victim, only identified as Iris, first sought the help of DyHP radio station.
Iris stated that she was walking home after she disembarked from a passenger jeepney along Pope John Paul Avenue in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City when she was met by a person who introduced herself as a businesswoman.
She said the person asked her where she can rent a van that they can use for a family outing and promised to give her a finder’s fee of P500.
But when two other women ran into her on the street and inquired about their conversation, she said that the suspect had been looking to hire a van.
She revealed that the two women identified themselves as being engaged in the used clothing (ukay-ukay) business and informed her that they have a friend who has a car rental company.
Iris then called the suspect to let her know that a van had already been located. The two women left, while the first woman begged Iris not to leave her because she is not from Cebu City and the place is unfamiliar to her.
They returned several minutes later and revealed that they found a van for rent for P8,000 a day. The suspect immediately showed the envelope containing P10,000.
But instead of giving the envelope to the two women to rent the car, the suspect handed it to Iris with the promise that the extra P2,000 would be given to her in return for her help.
The suspect and Iris then agreed to meet at a department store in North Reclamation Area. However, to make sure that the victim would arrive at their agreed meeting place, the suspect asked Iris to entrust her bag to her.
Since the victim was interested in the P2,000 that the suspect would give her, she agreed to give the bag and boarded a utility vehicle going to the department store.
When she arrived there, the suspect was nowhere to be found.
This raised suspicions that she had been duped by the three women, and when she opened the envelope, she discovered that it was filled with papers shaped like money.
The victim immediately reported the incident to Mabolo police, who then responded to the crime scene but they were unable to find any CCTV cameras in the area that could have been able to identify the culprits.
Police Major Eraño Regidor, chief of the Mabolo Police Station, said they are checking for other CCTVs in nearby corner and the rogues' gallery of well-known gangs that were previously arrested by the police.
Because of this, the police urged the public once again to be very careful in dealing with this type of modus operandi. (AYB, TPT)