Lim orders arrest of cop, taxi driver who took vault from unsuspecting housemaid

Mayor Alfredo Lim on Monday said that he was not buying the story of a rookie policeman who made off with the vault a housemaid was unwittingly bringing to suspected “dugo-dugo” gang members on Saturday.

At a press conference on Monday, Lim ordered the arrest of traffic enforcer Police Officer 1 Dominic Lapay, a resident of San Pascual Street in Malate, and taxi driver Hadji Heradora who had alerted the policeman about the vault.

He also pushed for Lapay’s dismissal from the service.

On Saturday, the two were able to intercept housemaid Geraldine Tamorite as she was bringing the vault owned by her employer, Siu Ting Tan, to Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center.

Earlier, Tamorite said she received a call from a woman who said she was Tan’s secretary.

According to the woman, Tan, her children and their driver had been injured in an accident and that the businesswoman wanted her to bring the vault, which contained her valuables to the hospital.

Heradora, whose taxi cab Tamorite had hailed to take her to the hospital, brought her to Lapay who was on duty on Tayuman Street. Lapay rode with the maid to the hospital and started to field the calls from the mysterious woman, in the end scaring off the gang.

Upon reaching the hospital, Tamorite went off to reload her cell phone and when she came back, Lapay and Heradora were nowhere to be found, along with the vault. It was only after she received a phone call from Tan’s children that the maid realized she had been duped.

Tamorite and Tan immediately went to the Caloocan police who asked for help from the Manila Police District to locate Lapay.

Lapay was nabbed and the vault, still locked, was recovered from his home.

Tan later told police that the vault contained around P10 million worth of cash, jewelry and other valuables.

Lapay, who was presented by Lim to media, told the mayor that he believed the maid was working with the gang. He added that when she failed to return after she got out of the cab, he started to think that she had escaped.

He said he decided to keep the vault over the weekend because he wanted to present it to Lim himself on Monday.

Heradora, meanwhile, claimed that after Tamorite disappeared, they decided to go back to Tan’s house so they could return the vault but since no one was home, Lapay decided to bring it to his own house.