Turns out even public figures aren’t safe from the Philippines’ mall con artists.
TV host Lyn Ching-Pascual lost her cellphone to a gang of pickpockets over the weekend, according to her co-host in the morning show Unang Hirit, Arnold Clavio.
Clavio reported the incident in his other show Dobol B sa News TV yesterday.
He said that Pascual was shopping at a store inside the high-end Power Plant mall in Makati City where she was victimized by a syndicate called Ipit Gang (Stuck Gang). Pascual was closely followed by three women inside the store while shopping.
In a Facebook post by Pascual, she specified the store is Zara.
GMA Network’s Balitambayan reported that the CCTV footage taken from the store’s premises showed one of the suspects stealing the cellphone from Pascual’s bag and passing it to one of her accomplices, who immediately went out of the store.
After taking Pascual’s phone, the perpetrator continued to follow Pascual closely in order to get the latter’s wallet but left when the TV host looked at the suspect.
It is unclear when Pascual discovered her phone was stolen, but she reported the incident to Makati Police Station 6.
In a combination of English and Filipino, Pascual wrote in her Facebook post that she asked the Zara store to check their CCTV “immediately.”
She wrote: “That was around 4pm. They’re checking now after 5pm… so the thieves are gone. They have left. So funny.”
Pascual said her cellphone, an iPhone 7 Plus, was a gift from her husband. “It was my favorite phone,” she wrote. “It has all my important photos and videos of my children.”
She tells her followers to “be careful.” Presumably addressing the thieves, she called them “heathens.”
Balitambayan stated that the TV host was the second victim of the day, with the first being a government undersecretary who lost two phones, according to Pascual. The incident happened 15 minutes before Pascual’s iPhone was stolen.
The authorities reportedly know the location of Pascual’s phone thanks to an app but have yet to catch the suspects.
