Woman foils taxicab robber

MANILA, Philippines - A woman foiled a taxicab driver who snatched her bag, holding on and biting his arm as he drove through several blocks along East Avenue in Quezon City until other cabbies came to her aid and caught the suspect last Saturday.

Following his arrest, suspect Joey Grajo, 29, has been tagged by a village watchman as among four robbers he saw in a taxicab earlier stolen in Quezon City and used in a series of similar robberies in the city, said Superintendent Jesus Balingasa, commander of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 10.

Balingasa said Lara Asis, 20, a volunteer for the Philippine National Red Cross, was walking with a friend along Matalino street just behind the Quezon City Hall Complex at around 11 p.m. Saturday when a Siete Pares taxicab (TXJ-792) driven by Grajo passed by and the cabbie snatched her bag.

However, Asis held on to her bag and shoved herself into the taxi’s open window. “At one point the woman even bit the arm of the cabbie for the latter to let go of her bag,” Balingasa said.

He said the commotion caught the attention of other cabbies, who eventually joined the chase to stop Grajo, who was cornered after dragging Asis for three blocks.

Policemen from the QCPD-Station 10 arrived in the area and arrested the suspect.

According to Balingasa, Grajo actually works as a taxi driver – the taxi operator identified him as one of the firm’s employees – but a village watchman of Barangay Laging Handa also identified Grajo to be the one who drove a white Nissan Sentra he saw parked on Scout Gandia Street weeks ago.

The village watchman spotted the sedan - which had a yellow plate despite being a private car - based on a leaflet given away by the QCPD-Station 10 in an effort to trace the “hot car.”

According to Balingasa, the Sentra was a taxicab stolen last September and had been used by robbers in snatching the bags of their victims. He said the taxicab’s markings had been removed to make it appear as a private car but it still bore yellow plates.

About two weeks ago, the Highway Patrol Group spotted the Sentra in Pampanga and flagged it down for carrying yellow plates. The man driving the Sentra said he just borrowed the car and left to make a phone call. He never returned, but forgot his driver’s license in the car.

Balingasa refused to identify the man who left the driver’s license, but said victims have identified him as the same one who snatched their bags.

He said with Grajo’s arrest and the identification of his alleged cohort, at least two other members of the robbery group are still at large.

Balingasa is inviting others whose bags were snatched by taxicab drivers to identify the suspects.