Napolcom employee loses P100T to office thief

A law enforcement evaluation officer of the National Police Commission-7 yesterday morning lost over P100,000 of her personal money inside the office building at Natalio Bacalso Avenue a couple of hours after their flag ceremony.

The victim, 49-year-old Vilma Petralba, a resident of White Hills subdivision in barangay Banawa, said she lost her checkbook and wallet, containing $600 and P70,500, and more unaccounted cash, that she inadvertently left behind her chair after attending the ceremony.

SPO2 Edgar Calado, of the City Police theft and robbery section, said that the Scene of the Crime Operation members later subjected all Napolcom-7 employees to fingerprinting based on the theory that the thievery was an inside job.

Petralba also believed that the thief might be a Napolcom-7 employee only so she requested SOCO to search also the tables and belongings of the employees there.

Petralba told investigators that, on her way to attend the flag ceremony yesterday morning at the rooftop of the Napolcom-7 building, she brought along her checkbook and wallet with all her money in it.

She said that she decided to leave behind her bag on her table in her office at the second floor and take with her all her money instead in going to the flag ceremony held at the rooftop of the building.

She recalled that, while the flag ceremony was underway, she placed her checkbook and wallet containing her money in a chair.

Shortly after the ceremony, she left the place and, along with the other employees, went down to their respective offices downstairs. She forgot to take with her the wallet with the money from where she put it.

It was only about 10:15 a.m., or a couple of hours later, when she was about to get something from her table that she remembered her money left behind a chair at the rooftop.

She hurriedly went up the rooftop but only to find it was no longer there. This caused her to be frantic and, in the ensuing commotion, the office janitor of two years Rey Basco approached her to ask if she lost her wallet.

Basco then pointed to her a plant box near the stairway and said he saw a wallet there. Petralba found it was her wallet all right but then the "theft" just left P800 in it for her and took away the larger sum.

Petralba said it was the first time, in her over 20 years of service at the Napolcom-7, that she was victimized there although there have been several unreported cases of thievery in the office in the past.

She said that she brought along with her the large sum of money, which she was supposed to pay at the bank by noon break yesterday for the monthly amortization of her purchased vehicle, and other bills due for payment. - Flor Z. Perolina/RAE