Deceived
I AM really sorry for my SoCCSKSarGen Blogger friends if I was not able to attend our scheduled meetup because something really unexpected happened.
A man who once came to our church for help last year returned this morning. He spoke in the pulpit and told us that he is paying back the church by donating musical instruments like a drum set, keyboard, guitars, and also chairs and several sacks of rice.
Sweet isn’t it? Until we realized it was deception.
One of Leann Rimes’ song has the line, “Shame on you if you fool me once, shame on me if you fool me twice.”
Last year, the church members contributed for his fare to Ipil, Zamboanga because he made us believe in his well-crafted ploy, which was a very sad story of a changed ex-convict who is looking for his wife and eager to start a new life.
Today, this man who calls himself Captain Panes of the Philippine Army fooled us for the second time. Because his story was convincing, we volunteered to help him haul the things he told us he would donate to our church.
He brought us (there were eight of us, including a pastor and an ex-military man) to Labangal, General Santos City, where he said we would pay a certain Mrs. Tobias who shouldered the freight of the instruments he was to donate. And there the swindling happened. He isolated me from group because he asked me to escort him to the house of his friend. That gave him the chance to get my phone ( my new and hard-earned phone) and some cash from our church’s fund.
This man victimized other churches as well. The latest being our church, Alabel Alliance Church and Lagao Alliance Church, yesterday.
We already reported this to the police and we also warned other church leaders about this man and his modus operandi.
It was a lesson learned the hard way.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
shit! that’s awfully deceiving and evil. don’t worry bout your phone, that’s only material, that man should be arrested before anyone will be victim-ed by him again. Hay.
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September 15th, 2008 at 4:45 am
kelangan masupil ang ganyang paglilinlang. kelangan kumilos kagad ang pulisya dyan.
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September 15th, 2008 at 6:40 am
omiGod! Really Ariel? Am so sorry to hear about what happened.
Don’t worry. Phone lang yan. Just be thankful that nothing untoward happened to you.
Email na lang tayo for anything. Be more careful next time.
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September 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
@aethen: it’s really evil.
@abou: right. that’s why we reported in immediately.
@sir avel: cenxa po tlaga ulit. yun din sabi ng nanay ko. she was really worried about me. know what, i even thought he had his comrades in the area and that they would assault me. glad that such thing didn’t happen. this experience had been very terrible. it’s very diffucult now to trust anyone.
ayels last blog post..Deceived
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September 15th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Tsaka, now lang ako nanghinayang sa phone. haha. nakakabadtrip lang.
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September 15th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Grabe naman, simbahan pa ang ginamit pang nakaw. Good you (I hope all of you) were able to get back to your town safe.
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September 16th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Jessica, that is actually the saddest thing about it.
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September 17th, 2008 at 3:29 am
that man’s a pro… tsk3..
sweets last blog post..2nd UM Shootfest
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September 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Oh mY. just when i was trying to drop by for some news bout you, i came across this. Condolences to the phone. But thank GOD you’re safe!!! It’s a relief he didn’t do anything to you. I hope he gets caught real soon.
Samaras last blog post..The Longest Line: A Very Rough Game
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September 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Thanks, samara. I really he gets caught.
ayels last blog post..Philippine Blog Awards Blogger’s Choice: My Vote is For…
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