Dyna Felices Quan talks to reporters at the police station after she was arrested with the boy beside her for stealing a businessman’s bag containing P150,000. The boy, who was arrested several times in the past, is not her son but has been staying with her for two years, police said. (CDN PHOTO/ APPLE MAE TAAS)
A 15-year-old boy was arrested by police for allegedly stealing the bag of a businessman containing P150,000 which was left inside his car parked on Osmeña Blvd. last Tuesday.
It was not the first for Nico (real name withheld) to be collared by cops due to petty crimes, mostly theft.
Chief Insp. David Señor, head of the Cebu City Police Station 2, said most of his victims would not think he is a thief because of his angelic and mestizo features.
In an interview, Nico said his neighbors taught him how to steal when he was still six, and since then, it has become his means to earn for computer games and gambling.
He dropped out of kindergarten and learned to sniff rugby.
He also said he steals valuable things such as cellular phones and sells them at P500 to a drug lord who threatened to kill him if he stops stealing for him.
Last Wednesday, Nico was brought to the police station with 42-year-old Dyna Felices Quan. He reportedly stays with Quan and her husband Rommel.
The bag of victim Joselito Lano, 42, a car dealer, was recovered but with only P106,000 inside as Rommel had ran away with P44,000.
Lano told reporters he left his bag with P150,000 inside his Mitsubishi Strada and went to a pharmacy for a while.
He left the car’s engine running and it was not locked.
When he returned to the car, the bag was already missing. Nico was identified through the footage of the pharmacy’s CCTV.
He was caught in the video riding a bicycle, stopped near the car and took the bag.
“When we received the information, we immediately asked for the CCTV footage which led to the identification of the boy. We traced him in the house of Quan in barangay Calamba where the cash was recovered,” said Señor.
Señor said when they went to Quan’s house, Dyna initially denied any knowledge of the boy’s loot but eventually turned over the cash stuffed in a sack.
Señor said Nico was arrested several times in the past but was not charged as he is a minor. After his arrest last Tuesday, he will be turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Nico’s parents are barbecue vendors in Pahina Central, but he refused to go home to them and chose to stay with Quan for more than two years already.
Quan will be charged with theft and violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Special Law Protecting the Children for using a minor to commit crimes.