Girl, 17, caught kidnapping 2 kids

MANILA, Philippines - A 17-year-old girl was arrested for attempting to kidnap two girls in Tondo, Manila yesterday.

Barangay 13 chairman Mario Macapagal brought the suspect to the Manila Police District (MPD) Station 2 after residents of Sandino street attacked her when the grandmother of a 10-year-old girl sought their help at past 8 a.m.

According to the MPD, the teenager’s modus operandi is to look for girls who are either on an errand or simply walking on the street unaccompanied. She then snatches their money or lures them to make them follow her to a waiting vehicle, where her accomplices will snatch the girls.

An aunt of the other victim, who is 14, said they followed the victims, who were on their way to a store, and saw them running when the suspect after she grabbed their money. 

The MPD is trying to locate the vehicle of the suspect’s accomplices.

There have been reports of girls being kidnapped by a group of people in a utility van, local officials said.