2 cellphone snatchers caught in 2 barangays

Two cellphone snatchings were foiled and the suspects arrested in two barangays yesterday due to the timely response and help from people and tanods near the scenes of the crime.

In barangay Lahug, 28-year-old Welmer Pabillon was caught and beaten up while fleeing with the expensive cellphone he snatched from a 14-year-old female student.

The girl was with her classmates on their way to another classmate's house, purportedly to work on a school assignment, when Pabillon suddenly grabbed her cellphone from behind.

The girl held on to her phone, worth about P30,000, and fought back by biting the left hand of the suspect who was much bigger than she was.

Then while her classmates scampered to ask for help, Pabillon managed to get the cellphone and ran to the St. Therese Parish Church.

Two men, Edward Ygot and Edgar Rivera, saw the commotion and the fleeing suspect who they quickly chased and caught near the church.

Residents nearby immediately took turns beating up Pabillon who was later taken to a clinic for injuries. The girl got back her cellphone while the suspect is now detained at the police station.

In barangay Guadalupe, 22-year-old John Elmido casually walked to his house after robbing a 16-year-old girl of her cellphone but, along the way, went straight into the waiting tanods instead.

Elmido held up the girl by pointing a barbeque stick at her and demanded her cellphone worth P6,000.

The scared teenager quickly yielded her phone but, as the suspect fled toward his house along Modesta Street, she ran to the barangay hall for help.

The suspect, oblivious of the tanods ahead of him, casually walked to the direction of his house and was eventually caught.

The cellphone was recovered from the possession of the suspect who PO1 Gerson Libatan said was a reputed snatcher in the area. - Edwin Ian Melecio