IT all started with a pizza order.
A cellphone shop owner and a pizza delivery boy both found themselves in the office of Lapu-Lapu City Acting Vice Mayor Harry Don Radaza, Wednesday, to collect payment for goods which they thought were ordered by Radaza.
Mylene Barrios, owner of EKJ Cellshoppe located in Poblacion, Lapu-Lapu City, asked Radaza for payment of P22,000 worth of E-load which, she said, was ordered by a member of Radaza’s staff.
Barrios was accompanied by Dominador Guble Jr., a pizza delivery boy, who brought with him P3,300 worth of pizzas which were supposedly also ordered by Radaza’s office.
According to Guble, a caller ordered three boxes of special pizza from Tony’s Pizzeria located in Barangay Basak, to be delivered to Radaza’s office at City Hall.
Guble narrated that the caller also asked the pizza store to prepare P700 as change upon delivery since he will be giving P4,000.
Before hanging up, the caller asked for Guble’s contact number in case they needed to follow up on the pizza order.
Later, the caller asked Guble if he could drop by a drug store on his way to City Hall to buy medicine. The caller told Guble to just hand over his cellphone to the pharmacist as he would be the one to talk to the pharmacist.
As soon as the caller talked to the pharmacist, the caller instead asked where the delivery boy could get electronic load. The pharmacist then told the pizza boy to buy E-load in a cellshoppe right across the drugstore.
While at the cellshoppe, the caller asked the delivery boy to hand over his phone to the cellshoppe attendant.
Barrios then talked to the caller herself who identified himself as a staff member of Radaza.
The caller then ordered E-load for eight mobile phone numbers which he dictated to Barrios.
Barrios, who thought that Guble, was also a staff of Radaza and had the money for payment, just kept on loading the numbers.
After the numbers were all loaded, she was told by the caller that he will just send somebody in a car to bring payment for the E-loads.
After waiting for several minutes, no one appeared.
Barrios called the phone back but the number could no longer be reached.
When confronted by Barrios and Guble in his office, Radaza said that he had no idea about the E-load and pizza orders.
Radaza advised Guble and Barrios to report the incident to the police.
Radaza cautioned all business establishments not just in Lapu-Lapu City to be wary of the different types of scams including those using the names of government officials. Radaza said businesses should always verify the orders first.
Radaza expressed alarm over the incident as this was the third time his name was used by swindlers preying on innocent delivery boys.
Months back, Radaza’s name was also used by swindlers when they ordered P4,000 worth of Pancit Malabon and P8,000 worth of E-load.