Are the WPD headquarters a venue for con artists?
Thirteen-year-old Aldrin Harley Pua left home late Thursday afternoon looking forward to a cozy stroll at an Ermita mall. Three hours later, he was sitting somewhere inside the Western Police District (WPD) headquarters, tired, penniless, and scared out of his wits.
Pua did not realize it right away, but he had been robbed. What is shocking is that he was not at the home of Manila's Finest to file a complaint, he was robbed there.
"Ayaw na namin, narito na ang anak ko nakabalik na siya. Wala na (We don't want to file a complaint anymore. My son is already here. That's it)," Pua's mother told The STAR over the phone, still sounding shaken.
Pua's mother refused to give her name and immediately dialed the phone number The STAR gave her after the interview to make sure it was not bogus.
"My son lost his cellphone and money at the WPD headquarters. We just can't tell exactly where, but we think it was somewhere there. My son remembers the white and blue paint," Pua's mother said. The WPD headquarters' interiors are painted while and blue.
The scared boy was made to believe he was picked-up by police on suspicion of shoplifting.
The teenager's mother went through a harrowing ordeal when a man, who introduced himself as Jun Morales, called up their home and told her that her son was at the "Masagana (supermarket) detachment" of the WPD and that she should look for a Sergeant Carol Enriquez.
Mrs. Pua, rushing there, soon discovered what she had suspected all along - there was no Masagana WPD detachment, no Jun Morales nor a Sergeant Carol Enriquez.
Based on Mrs. Pua's narration, Aldrin left their home in Malate about 4 p.m. and went to the Robinson's Mall in Ermita. While about to exit a groundfloor bookstore, the con artist reportedly confronted the boy and questioned his movements. He told the boy that he would have to come with him because several items were missing from a stall.
Mrs. Pua said her son was later brought near the mall's security office on the second floor and later to the cinema area on the fourth floor where the suspect reportedly feigned knowing the guards.
"He (con man) waved and talked to them as if he knew them and teased them about the bomb threats before leaving again," said the boy's mother. "They later stepped out of the mall and my son said they took a long walk until they reached that police building."
It was reportedly at the Manila police headquarters that the robber told the terrified boy that he was confiscating his wallet and cellphone and that a lawman would later come for him and return his valuables.
The boy waited for an hour before he decided to ask a policemen for some change so that he could go back home. The cop, apparently not knowing that he was talking to a robbery victim in their own turf, gave the hapless boy five pesos.
Mrs. Pua learned that her son was already home only when he called up his mother. Mrs. Pua was at the time frantically inquiring at the mall's security office, which knew nothing about her boy.