71-year-old farmer loses P200K to ‘budol-budol’ gang in Quezon

LUCENA CITY – A 71-year-old farmer lost P200,000 after falling prey to “budol-budol” con artists in Catanauan town in Quezon province on Tuesday.

A report from the Quezon police headquarters said Carlito Espinosa was in front of a commercial bank in Catanauan town proper around 8 a.m., when two of the four gang members approached him and started a conversation.

When the victim told the suspects his family name, one of the gang members introduced himself as a relative having also the same surname.

A female suspect accompanied the victim inside the bank and made him sign a withdrawal slip amounting to P200,000 and placed the money inside a bag.

After the withdrawal, the victim and the suspects boarded a van and later dropped the old man in another part of the town.

The suspects handed him the bag that supposedly contained his money with the instruction that they will later meet in a fast food joint.

Later on, the old man opened the bag and found thick wads of papers instead of cash money.

Police requested the bank to allow the investigators to review the recordings of its closed-circuit television cameras to possibly identify the suspects. /je