Housemaid confesses to P1-M jewelry and cash theft

MANILA, Philippines — Had Alma de La Cruz arrived home at the usual time, she would not have caught her household help for two years in the act of leaving for good after stealing over a million pesos worth of jewelry and cash, a police report said.

Senior Police Officer 2 Antonio Galauran of the Quezon City Police theft and robbery section, De la Cruz filed a robbery complaint against her maid, Lea de la Cerna, for stealing some P1.2 million pesos worth of jewelry and P6,000 in cash.

In her complaint to the police, De la Cruz said De La Cerna took the jewelry and cash from the master bedroom of her home at Vic Marie Compound in Barangay Baesa, Quezon City.

Galauran said De la Cerna tried to claim that she was a victim of a “dugo-dugo” gang, a robbery group that used hypnotism when stealing.

At the police station however, “she suddenly broke down and admitted that she, with the encouragement of two other suspects, stole the valuables,’’ Galauran said.

De la Cerna said her employer arrived two hours earlier.

The maid admitted she had two cohorts whom she identified only as Bunny and a Miraflor Luna, alias Mimi.

The maid said this was the first time she had stolen anything.  She said she had passed on all the jewelry and cash to the other suspects.