Cops probing cases of theft in gov’t office

The Quezon City Police District is investigating several incidents of theft at the Office of the Ombudsman.

On Tuesday morning, three printer cartridges valued at P18,000 were discovered missing from a second-floor stockroom.

Case investigator PO2 Gilmer Marinas said the incident was the latest in a series of thefts reported at the agency, particularly in the General Services Office (GSO).

The cases were reported by the GSO’s administrative officer, Willy Mesa, who said that five printer cartridges worth P30,000 were discovered missing on May 6.

“The administrative officer had learned that there were previous thefts so he would regularly conduct an inventory of the office supplies there,” Marinas said.

The police learned that since the start of the month, three inventories have been conducted to check for missing office supplies.

This prompted the installation of a surveillance camera inside the stockroom on May 8 without the knowledge of other employees.

At 7:15 a.m. on May 11, a video footage showed a man climbing down from the ceiling of the stockroom, Marinas said. On Tuesday morning, a custodian reported that three printer cartridges were missing.

Two janitors who were on duty over the weekend were among those being considered as suspects as they were the only ones who had access to the stockroom.

Marinas added that one of the duty janitors reportedly borrowed the key to the stock room from a guard on May 11.