MANILA, Philippines - A group of about four or five con artists carted away P3 million worth of jewelry owned by a 79-year-old widow in Quezon City, police said yesterday.
Retired dietitian Lily Sison, a resident of Loyola Heights, told investigators the incident happened between 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday while she was out of the house.
Police Officer 2 Jogene Hernand said Sison’s housemaid, Marissa de la Torre, received a phone call from a woman telling her to dial a land line number, 904-8696.
De la Torre did and found herself talking to another woman who claimed to be Sison, who claimed she figured in a vehicular accident and needed a large sum of money immediately.
De la Torre said another woman talked to her on the telephone and instructed her to break open Sison’s cabinet, gather Sison’s jewelry and put them in a bag.
De la Torre said she destroyed the cabinet lock with the help of two other helpers, Ma. Sierra Ruego and Mildred Ruego Balandro, then hailed a taxicab and proceeded to the agreed meeting place.
She said she was met by a fair-skinned, six-foot tall man with cropped hair, who got the jewelry and told her to wait for her employer to arrive.
The maid waited for several hours and decided to go back home to her employer’s place at around 7 p.m. When she arrived, she found Sison had arrived ahead of her and that she never figured in any accident. The suspects remain at large.