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.