Anti-domestic violence office burglarized; suspect arrested

The Domestic Violence Intervention Office on Capital Hill was burglarized and several items were stolen last Sept. 15. Police arrested one suspect on Friday.

Franklin C. Crisostomo, 35, was served with an arrest warrant on Capital Hill on a charge of receiving stolen property. His bail was set at $20,000 cash. Preliminary hearing is on Oct. 7 at 9am.

Assistant public defender Cindy Nebit was appointed as counsel for Crisostomo.

Police said an officer was dispatched to a burglary and theft incident on Sept. 15 at the Domestic Violence Intervention Office. The officer determined that the point of entry was the sliding window on the northern portion of the office.

Stolen were a box-type Toshiba TV, an office desk for an Acer computer, a Lenovo laptop with bag, several Family Violence plastic bags, and Family Violence task force purple and black bags.

Later that afternoon, police officer Catherine B. Pangelinan received anonymous tips that Crisostomo had been seen unloading stolen items into his house and then loading some back into a red car.

Pangelinan said on the following day, Sept. 16, a police officer called her that he made a violator stop of Crisostomo’s red car by Tanapag Mobil. Two women in the car told police that the last person who used the car was Crisostomo.

During a search of the car, police found boxes of ink for a printer, one silver box projector, a red and black box for a Casio camera with USB cords in it, and several cans of paint thinner and paint.

The next day, Pangelinan received information that Crisostomo had approached a person two nights before, offering to sell government items from inside the red car. The person saw a gray box projector, a laptop, a camera, and several bags that have the words “family violence” written on them. Some of the items had government tags on them.

On Sept. 18, Crisostomo’s brother called police for help in evicting Crisostomo and a woman from his apartment. As Pangelinan and another detective were helping the woman carry her items out, Pangelinan noticed a Toshiba TV on top of a small table next to the bed. She also noticed the shape of a government tag removed from the top of the TV.

The woman told her that Crisostomo brought a lot of items into the house two days ago. She also saw government tags peeled off from the items.

With the help of the woman, Pangelinan recovered some of the government tags from a trash bag.

The woman said she moved to Crisostomo’s apartment only a week ago. She revealed that two days before, she and another woman noticed that Crisostomo brought some items inside her room like a Family Violence backpack, a Lenovo laptop, a desktop, a split type air-conditioner, and other items.

A day before Crisostomo brought the items to the apartment, he allegedly asked them if they could drop him off at his cousin’s house on Capital Hill. The two women dropped Crisostomo off near the Domestic Violence Intervention Office.

On Sept. 18, two detectives brought the Toshiba TV that was found in Crisostomo’s room to the Domestic Violence Intervention Office, where a staff positively identified it as the one that used to be in their conference room.

Another staff also identified the red camera box as government property.