Suspected female pickpockets from Cebu City nabbed in Talisay City

Two suspected female pickpockets from Cebu City were arrested in Talisay City on Saturday night, April 30, 2022. | contributed photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Immediate reporting of a pickpocketing incident to the police has led to the arrest in Talisay City on Saturday night, April 30, 2022, of two suspected female pickpockets from Cebu City

Police Lieutenant Colonel Randy Caballes, chief of Talisay City Police Station, identified the two suspected female pickpockets as Juvy Hilot, 22, of Barangay Pasil; and Maria Cristita Sullano Benemerito, 25, of Barangay Ermita, Cebu City.

According to Caballes, these two have allegedly been engaged in pickpocketing since they were 10 and 18 years old respectively.

Aside from that, Caballes said that these two suspects were previously arrested in Cebu City for theft and drug offenses.

For Hilot, Caballes said she had four cases of theft where she was also arrested.

Hilot was arrested by Carbon police for theft and possession of illegal drugs in 2016, and in 2019, she was also arrested two separate times by the Mabolo and Abellana policemen for theft.

Just recently, in 2022, Hilot was also arrested for the crime of theft by the Abellana police.

Police Corporal Eleazar Belciña, Talisay City police investigator, said that they had no further details about the mentioned offenses of the suspects.

Benemerito, on the other hand, was arrested by Abellana police for possession and selling of illegal drugs.

Modus Operandi

Disclosing their modus operandi, Caballes said that the suspect would look for targets, usually female targets, bringing with them their shoulder bags.

The suspects will follow the victim in a congested area and secretly open the bag and take valuable items from them.

After successfully taking these items, they then pass these items to their cohorts on standby.

Caballes said that these suspected female pickpockets usually take wallets and cellular phones and these would be delivered and sold to a seller in Cebu City.

These two operate in the cities of Mandaue, Cebu, and Talisay. Police believed that these two were members of a group engaged in the illegal activity.

Arrests, Victims

Quoting the circumstance of their arrests, Belciña said that the incident happened around 6 p.m. in Barangay Tabunok. A 19-year-old victim of the two women from Barangay San Roque, positively identified the two women as the suspects who took her wallet with cash worth P2,200.

“Ang biktima nilabang kay naa siyay gipalit unya pagtan-aw niya, wa na ang iyang pitaka. Wa may laing duha ka babaye nga nagsunod sa iyaha. Mao to nanawag sila, nangayo silag assistance sa police nga duty. Gihulat nila nga makit-an pa sa area. Pagkakita, gitudlo sa babaye unya guilty kaayog reaction ang duha, nidagan,” Belcina said.

(The victim crossed the street because she would buy something on the other side of the street, but when she looked in her bag, her wallet was missing. There were no other persons following her but those two women. So the victim called the police and sought assistance to the police on duty. They waited to see if the suspects were still in the area. And when the victim saw them, he pointed at them as the people who took her wallet and the suspects had that guilty look and then they tried to escape.)

These two were immediately arrested.

When taken to the station, police recovered other items from the suspected female pickpockets. Police contacted the contact numbers attached to the recovered items and two victims, a 22-year-old woman from Minglanilla town and a 25-year-old man of San Roque, Talisay City went to the police station to identify their things taken by the suspects.

The woman from Minglanilla told police that it was around 3 p.m. on April 30 when the incident happened. She was waiting for a jeep going to her residence in Minglanilla and she was standing in front of a mall in Barangay Tabunok, Talisay City. It was around 4:30 p.m. that day when she arrived home and learned that her wallet was no longer in her bag.

Later that day, Talisay police contacted her and informed her that her wallet was recovered following the arrests of the two suspects.

The man from Barangay San Roque, for his part, also said that it was around 2 p.m. on April 30 while he was in Barangay Tabunok together with his girlfriend, when they noticed that their bag was already open and his cellphone inside it was gone.

The victim’s cellphone was also among those recovered from the suspects.

Aside from the recovered items, police confiscated two small sachets of ‘shabu’ from the two suspects. Each sachet weighed 0.03 grams.

The two suspects are currently detained at the custodial facility of the Talisay City Police Station.

READ: ‘Notorious’ snatcher to face multiple charges – Caballes