A KIWI tourist lost some P120,000 worth of valuables and travel documents to a thief who was able to enter his rented room in a pension house in Barangay Capitol Site in Cebu City last Wednesday.
David John Baeley, 72, was reportedly surprised when he came back to his room around 6:50 a.m. and found his empty luggage.
When he asked the front desk officer about it, he was told that a man asked for his key card minutes before he arrived.
The man reportedly told Sarie May Kong, who was at the front desk of Executive Pension that morning, that he was instructed by Baeley to get the key card that he left inside the room.
Kong told PO3 Christopher Sanchez of Police Station 2 that she thought the suspect was telling her the truth.
“She eventually gave the key card for Room 204 to the suspect without thinking that the foreigner was the lone occupant of said room,” Sanchez said.
The unidentified suspect was seen in the pension house’s closed circuit television (CCTV) footage.
He left the pension house on J. Llorente St. with an already full sling bag and another bag, according to Sanchez.
Baeley told the police that he lost his newly issued passport, an iPad worth P35,000, a Dell laptop worth P45,000, a disc player worth P8,000, a luggage worth P10,000, a computer case worth P7,000, a bag worth P12,000 and a wallet containing bank cards.
The only thing the burglar left, aside from the empty luggage, was the victim’s cancelled passport, which will expire in January next year.
Baeley is from New Zealand.
On the same day, a suspected robber was arrested on M.J. Cuenco Ave. where several robbers who victimize jeepney passengers were arrested in the past weeks.
Residents of Barangay Tejero witnessed the arrest of Nelson “Eton” Celerio, 42, after he allegedly robbed a female passenger of her smart phone inside a public utility jeepney (PUJ) at 6:05 p.m.
A police team led by SPO2 Reynold Malazarte tracked down the suspect in Sitio Villagonzalo II after the victim reported the incident to Police Station 3.
Celerio was positively identified by the victim, Al-Leane Zacarias.