Cops nab cable thief

A 19-year-old out-of-school youth was arrested by the police after he was caught in the act of illegally cutting off the overhead telephone cables in a neighborhood in Tondo, Manila yesterday morning.

Mark Reicel Alibadbad, a Batang City Jail gang member, of Don Bosco, Tondo, was climbing down an electric post when a patrolling mobile car crew of the Western Police District (WPD) spotted him.

Seized from him were several meters of telephone cables, a cutter and electrical tape.

When confronted, the suspect admitted cutting off the overhead telephone cables that ran along Road 10 in Tondo. He said he intended to splice the cable and sell its aluminum and copper wires to a junk shop.

The theft of the telephone cables resulted in the abrupt cutting off of telephone services of residents in the area, according to WPD’s Mobile Patrol chief Senior Inspector Wilfredo Estrella.

He added representatives of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is coordinating with the police to determine the extent of damage to residential households as a result of the theft.

PO1 Norman Casihan and PO2 Marlo Robles, crew of Mobile Car 309, transferred the suspect to the Tondo police station for proper disposition. — Nestor Etolle