Two women motorists in Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities lost cash and valuables in their cars after their attention was diverted for a few seconds by conmen using the modus “laglag barya” on Monday.
Manilyn Mar, an executive manager of an ESL school, was in the parking area of a pharmacy in A.S. Fortuna Street at noon when it happened.
Mar said she was about to leave when a man knocked at the back of her Toyota Fortuner and gestured that something had fallen from her vehicle.
Mar tried to ignore the man but heard a loud thud at the back. Fearing she may have hit something while backing up, Mar got down to check. The car door was left open. When she saw some keys and loose coins behind the car, she realized she may have been tricked.
She drove off to her office, and later discovered that a bag she had placed on the passenger seat was missing. She said it contained P10,000 cash, checks worth more than P500,000, various credit and ATM cards and two mobile phones.
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File video of a CCTV camera was examined by by the police and showed that four persons were involved in the theft.
One man diverted her attention. Another man served as a lookout, while a man and a woman entered the victim’s vehicle and took her bag.
“It only took seconds,” Mar said.
Several hours later, a similar incident happened in the parking area of Marina Mall in barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City.
Virginia Yu, 43, a resident of barangay Basak, said she was about to drive home when a man knocked on the windshield of her car.
The man held up an object and asked if she owned it.
Yu got off and told the man that the item did not belong to her.
Yu went back to her car and drove away.
When she was already at home, Yu discovered that her bag containing her cellphones and other valuables amounting to at least P150,000 were missing.