Trader loses P2M to con artist

A businessman in Quezon City lost over P2 million worth of valuables to a con artist who tricked his housemaid into giving her his portable safe.

Celestino Perez, 58, a resident of Commonwealth Hobart Homes in Barangay (village) Old Balara, immediately reported the incident to the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit. He said he lost P1.5 million and $400 in cash, around P500,000 worth of jewelry and several important documents.

According to case investigator PO2 Alvin Quisumbing, Perez’s house helper was left by herself in her employer’s house when she received a phone call around 10 a.m. on Saturday.

A woman on the other end of the line then told her that Perez and his wife had figured in an accident and needed money, the police added.

Concerned for her employers’ wellbeing, the housemaid quickly followed the caller’s instructions: to take the portable safe from the master bedroom, get into a cab and bring the safe to a fast-food restaurant at Welcome Rotunda.

At the restaurant, the maid said a woman took the safe from her and told her to wait for her employers. She later realized after several hours of waiting in vain that she had been tricked and went home.