Driving the whole day under the hot Manila sun is hard enough as it is, but having to fend off thieves makes things a lot worse.
Facebook user Denmark Bernardo shared a chilling video yesterday of street kids stealing a jeepney driver’s earnings right from his dashboard when he stopped at a red light on Taft Ave. in Manila.
The video shows two kids running to the jeepney and getting up to the right passenger’s side. In the blink of an eye, both kids run off with the jeepney driver’s wooden box filled with paper bills and coins, some of which fell on the pavement as they tried to escape.
Bernardo told Coconuts Manila in a Facebook message that the incident happened at 5:30pm near the Philippine Normal University on Taft Ave.
“The group of kids and teenagers suddenly swamped the area, [and] there was also a woman wearing shorts who was probably 21-years-old,” he said in Filipino.
“While they were approaching, you can already feel something unusual because they were all aggressive,” he added.
He said the kids and teenagers were also sniffing something from a cloth, possibly rugby.
Bernardo spoke with a pedicab driver named James, who was at the crime scene when the theft happened.
According to James, this group of kids usually grab pedestrians’ food or would forcefully ask them for alms. They also approach car drivers to ask for money.
However, their scheme also includes stealing money from public utility jeepneys (PUJs), which according to the pedicab driver “always happens.”
“You can notice that the group really targeted PUJs. This pedicab driver told me to be careful because the group could start [stealing from anyone] anytime,” Bernardo said.
James also told Bernardo to take a video of the kids if they strike. When Bernardo did, he felt that the children were aware that he was recording them on video.
Bernardo said: “I didn’t expect that they would still do it [because I was recording them on video].”
When the kids ran away from the jeepney, Bernardo tried to stop one of the kids from leaving.
“I tried to grab the shirt of that kid in green which is why the video was cut right after, he was the one who was holding the wooden box of the jeepney driver’s earnings,” he added.
The second video shows James catching one of the culprits but the jeepney driver told him to just let the child go.
Bernardo said the jeepney driver picked up the coins that the kids left on the pavement after the incident.
“The driver got off the jeepney, picked up the remaining coins, and told me: ‘It’s gone, they already got the bills.'”
Bernardo asked where these children’s parents are. “Probably some of their parents don’t even know what their children are doing … but they’re still irresponsible,” he told Coconuts Manila.
However, Bernardo learned that there are still people who value hard work.
“I was happy when the pedicab driver said: ‘I’m poor and I can easily do what they’re doing, but I won’t ever do that. It’s a lot more fulfilling to do good things to your fellow Filipinos.'”
The first video already has over 2 million views and 47,000 shares as of this article’s posting. Netizens were understandably distraught.
Mic Rogando said in Filipino: “The driver worked hard for that, and you just stole it.”
Lawrence Go said that the kids were “literally cancer.”
Another user said they were the same group that got the money of an old jeepney driver. “They were the ones that also got the earnings of an old [jeepney driver] at a stoplight on Doroteo Jose [in Manila]. We couldn’t do anything but cry because of what happened, because I couldn’t help him. I pitied him. I hope they get caught.”
Uoliram Opsid Animaci wrote in Filipino: “That doesn’t just happen there. [It happens] on the entire stretch of Taft Ave. [In Padre] Faura, there’s a lot of those. Thieves have stolen from me multiple times in that area. When you complain to the police, they can’t do anything.”
Facebook user Duterte Bhet lamented what authorities in the area were doing. “What are the police in that area doing? Try to do something, sirs. Your salary has gotten bigger, but you aren’t doing your jobs if that’s been happening for a while now,” Bhet said in Filipino.
