Man linked to string of hospital thefts falls

A 36-year-old man suspected to be involved in several hospital thefts in Cebu City was arrested last Tuesday afternoon.

Joseph Rosario of Mandaue City was caught in a  ward of  the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center after he took a woman’s cellphone plugged to a wall outlet.

The phone owner, Chymbee Pitogo Sherman, was was attending to her daughter, a patient,  when she briefly left to use the comfort room.

Joseph Rosario was arrested after he was caught stealing a cellphone inside the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC). (CDN PHOTO APPLE MAE TA-AS)

 

When she returned, she  said saw Rosario remove  her  smartphone worth P4,000 and rush outside the hospital.

The mother chased him and shouted for help. Bystanders who noticed the commotion cornered Rosario and turned him over to the police.

Rosario admitted stealing the cellphone, saying he  needed money to buy medicine for an  ailing aunt. It was the third time he struck in the hospital, he said.

Senior Insp. Rolito Supatan said Rosario’s modus was to pretend to be a patient’s visitor or relative in various  hospitals in Cebu City.

“When he’d see a vacant bed, he would linger there. And then when no one was watching, he’d pick up unattended gadgets and leave,” said Supatan, chief of the Theft and Robbery Section.

Several identification and ATM cards with different names, and SIM packs were recovered from Rosario’s possession.

Another man was arrested  Oct. 15 for preying on inattentive patients or their caregivers.  Albert Tumagna was arrested  trying to  encash a stolen check in a bank.  The check owner fell asleep while watching over his wife in Chong Hua Hospital when the check was taken. Police said the suspect did similar mischief in other hospitals.

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