Valenzuela theft suspects nabbed thru FB

A 24-year-old theft suspect was arrested in Albay province along with his accomplice on Friday after he left his Facebook account open on a tablet that enabled the victim in Valenzuela City to know his location.

Jimboy Playda, a company driver, and his friend Aniceto Bongalon were captured by a joint police team from Valenzuela and Polangui, Albay, three days after they were caught on video stealing a safe from the office of Louie Chua, Playda’s boss.

The safe contained P300,000 in cash, two gold rings worth P85,000, a diamond ring worth P100,000, documents and some more cash in yuan, Chua told the police.

Playda and Bongalon also used the van of Jing Lung Merchandise, Chua’s company based in Barangay Rincon, Valenzuela, to escape with the loot.

According to Senior Insp. Jose Hizon, the Valenzuela police investigation chief, Playda earlier borrowed the Bluewave tablet of Chua to check his Facebook account—but forgot to log out from the site when he returned the device to his boss.

His private messages and the site’s location features helped authorities locate the suspects in Polangui, hometown of Playda’s live-in partner, Hizon said on Saturday.

The police recovered only the safe and the documents, which Playda had thrown into a creek, and found him already owning a brand new Honda motorcycle and an iPhone.