Bus pickpockets victimize woman, foreigner

A call center agent and a foreigner lost their valuables to pickpockets that preyed on bus passengers in separate incidents in Makati City on  Saturday evening.

Lyra Ela T. Guerra, a customer service representative of E. Rodriguez Street Jr. in Cubao, Quezon City, lost her cell phone to three men at 10:30 p.m.

Guerra said she was about to alight from a passenger bus in front of the PBCom Tower on Ayala Avenue when an unidentified man blocked her path while two other men “sandwiched” her briefly. When Guerra checked her pockets a few moments later, she discovered that her cell phone was missing.

On the other hand, Sri-Lankan national Kusal Dilshan Palihena, an IT support engineer residing at The Columns on Ayala Avenue, claimed he lost his black leather wallet as he was riding in a bus from SM Megamall in Mandaluyong to Ayala Avenue.

Palihena said he did not know who took his wallet as he found out it was missing only after he got off the vehicle. The wallet contained several identification cards, his driver’s license, credit and ATM cards, keys and P5,000 in cash. Noli A. Ermitanio