Thief preying on roommates falls for trap set up by victim, police

A man who had rented rooms in two different dormitories in Manila so that he could steal from fellow boarders was arrested Wednesday in an entrapment operation set up by authorities with the help of one of his victims.

The police caught Jairus Ivan Galsim, 34, in a motorcycle shop at the corner of España Boulevard and Lacson Street after his former roommate pretended to be from the shop and sent him a text message saying his application for a motorcycle loan had been approved.

Senior Insp. Alexander Rodrigo, chief of the Manila Police District (MPD) theft and robbery section, said Galsim’s modus operandi was to rent a room in a dormitory, steal his roommate’s belongings, and then leave without paying the rent.

His most recent victim was Jasper Lagman, a student who shared a room with Galsim in a house on Loyola Street, Sampaloc. Lagman reported the loss of a laptop and two cameras, which disappeared from his room cabinet after he went home to the province on Jan. 17.

With Galsim gone, dorm personnel later allowed Lagman to open Galsim’s locker, where he found a shirt marked “Valdez Center Robinsons Toda (tricycle operators and drivers association)” as well as a receipt from Wheeltek Motors shop, where the trap was eventually set.

According to Lagman, he didn’t even know Galsim’s name because the suspect had moved in only three days before he left for the province. “Once I got his name [from the dorm records], I went to Wheeltek to ask if they knew him and they gave me his address, which led me to a different dorm,” he added.

At the other dorm which was also on Loyola Street, Lagman met Marvin Mendoza who said Galsim had been renting the room with him for a couple of months before the suspect disappeared on Jan. 16. Mendoza said he also lost some bags containing important documents and IDs, along with a pair of small speakers.

Since Mendoza still had Galsim’s mobile phone number, he asked the suspect through text message to return his ID cards at a laundry shop where Mendoza could pick them up. Surprisingly, Galsim did as he was told and even “admitted what he did in a text message. He said he needed money.’’

Mendoza and Lagman reported the thefts to the MPD on Tuesday. The next day, Mendoza texted Galsim about his “approved” motorcycle loan and Rodrigo and his men waited for the suspect at the shop. Galsim was arrested upon arrival around 2 p.m.

“He kept denying the allegations but when we showed him a pawnshop receipt proving that he pawned [Lagman’s] laptop, he finally confessed,” said Rodrigo.

Galsim remained in detention Thursday as the MPD checked for other possible victims since he was also carrying “a list of dormitories” when arrested.