The Paniqui police chief Supt. Salvador Destura said in the first case, police operatives were able to convince two suspected thieves, identified as Marlon Tagulao, 38 and Edmund Calumpiano, 44, of Lacayana Subdivision in Barangay Poblacion, to sell back one laptop they stole from Alberto Baclid Aspiras , 58, of Barangay Ventinilla also in Paniqui.
Aspira’s house was ransacked by the thieves last Good Friday as he and his family were out for religious activities. The suspects carted off not only his laptop but also his 48-inch flat screen television set, two wristwatches and two cellphones.
“It was a unique sting operation we did. We found a way to contact one of the suspects by phone and asked the victim to call and convince the suspect he urgently needed back his loptop and was willing to pay immediately P5,000 to have it back,” Ventura said.
Destura said the two suspects agreed to this proposal, giving way to their arrest last Tuesday by the police during the buy-back set up. The cops recovered not only the laptop but also the other stolen items.
He said the suspects later admitted their crime and spilled the beans on other members of their group who had also broken into other homes last Good Friday.
Also last Good Friday, three boys aged 17, 15 and 13 were held by the police after they allegedly also broke into the Luis Place Shop owned by one Reniel Ortiz in downtown Paniqui, and stole two expensive cameras, an IPad and two cellphones.
Destura said the minors later sold some of the items which were recovered from the buyers.
“The Canon DLSR camera and the iPad were recovered from Fernando De Guzman Apelado, 49, a siomai vendor and a resident of Barangay Patalan in Paniqui while the Sony Cybershot digi-cam was recovered from Federico Eclavia, 61, of Barangay San Julian in Moncada town,” police said.
Inspector Marty Calara who led the recovery of the stolen goods said “the immediate recovery of the stolen goods was probably God’s way of saying Good Friday should be kept holy.” Two of the stolen cellphones, however, were not found.
