Con artists took P20,000 worth of jewelry from a Toledo City resident whom they duped into believing she was holding half a million pesos in cash.
It was too late when 79-year-old Letty Lopez found out that she was holding a pouch full of folded sheets of paper or “budol-budol”, a modus operandi of swindlers.
Lopez, a resident of barangay Sangi, later told police she was headed for the public market in barangay Poblacion on Monday morning when a woman approached her and introduced herself as a family friend.
The woman, who was about 40 years old, brought Lopez to a parked car and introduced her to two male companions. One occupied the driver’s seat of the red car while the other sat beside him.
In the car’s back seat, the woman handed Lopez a pouch which she said contained half a million pesos. The woman said they wanted to leave the money with Lopez because it may get lost if they brought it with them during their travel.
The woman then asked for Lopez’s necklace worth P15,000 and wristwatch and ring worth P5,000 as guarantee that she would not run away with their cash. The trio left Lopez and never came back.