Fake soldier who stole cars in AFP camp nabbed

IMPOSTOR Authorities catch Marvin Harry Pasion who successfully took two vehicles by posing as a military man. —QCPD photo

The Quezon City police arrested on Saturday a man who had posed as a soldier and brazenly operated a car rental scam right inside Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, that enabled him to steal two vehicles.

Marvin Harry Pasion, 38, used a fake name, Charm Alcantara, on social media, to scout for victims. He introduced himself as a soldier who was looking for vehicles to rent, according to the police.

Modus operandi

Whenever car owners would get in touch with him, Pasion would request them to bring their vehicles to Camp Aguinaldo, the police said.

He would ask them to let him take their cars for a test drive only to never return.

Pasion’s modus operandi, which began in October 2017, allowed him to steal a black Toyota Avanza (ABO 4851) and an orange Toyota Vios (ABT 7477) on Oct. 17, 2017 and April 1, 2018, respectively.

After making off with his victims’ vehicles, Pasion would then contact them and ask for money for their cars’ return.

The victims, however, were unable to pay the money that he demanded.

Suspect spotted

A report from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) said that at about 5 p.m. on Friday, AFP-Intelligence Division personnel who had been alerted to Pasion’s modus operandi told operatives of the QCPD’s anticar theft section that the stolen vehicles had been spotted at Lamar Village in San Mateo, Rizal province, where the suspect lived.

At 6 a.m. the next day, Quezon City policemen and AFP intelligence units arrested Pasion on Saint Joseph Street as he was about to get into the stolen Vios. The other stolen vehicle was recovered.

The QCPD said Pasion would be charged with car theft and usurpation of authority.