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| The thief is caught in the act of picking the victim's wallet |
A Filipina was arrested by police in World-Wide House in
Central before noon on Sunday, May 10, after she was nabbed by another Filipina
whose wallet the suspect allegedly tried to steal.
The incident happened on the third floor of World-Wide House,
a mall that is crowded with Filipino workers on Sundays who go there to eat,
shop for native products or send money to their families back home.
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| Pindutin pra sa detalye! |
A spokeswoman from the Police Public Relations Branch said a
female security officer of the mall reported the incident to the Central Police
Station at 11:30am.
Officers who responded reportedly saw that the 40-year-old
suspect was already being held by security staff and watched by the 28-year-old
victim.
The PPRB officer said the victim was shopping on the third
floor of the mall when she noticed that somebody was trying to pick her wallet.
At the same time, a Filipina shopper who noticed the
incident took a video of the botched theft and alerted the victim.
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| Suspect is squeezed in by various Filipinas from all sides as the victim holds onto her arm |
The victim pounced on the suspect’s arm just as she had
taken the wallet from her bag and called the mall security.
The PPRB spokeswoman said the suspect was taken to the
Central Police station for interrogation, but could not tell if charges had
been filed.
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| Police investigate the suspect at the scene |
Many OFWs have long complained about pickpockets at
World-Wide’s shopping arcade, who mostly proliferate on the first Sunday after
the end of the month, when most foreign domestic workers had just received
their salaries.
Before this incident, a Filipina helper warned against pickpockets
in the shopping mall after she lost her wallet to a thief on May 1.
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| CALL US! |
The victim recovered the wallet shortly afterwards from the
mall’s management office, where someone had returned it, but without the $600
cash inside. But the victim was just grateful her HKID and her bank ATM card
were left untouched.
