Cop arrested for allegedly stealing teacher’s cell phone

Police arrested on Friday afternoon a police officer who allegedly stole a cell phone that a teacher forgot at a store in Kagman. The act was caught by the store’s surveillance camera.

Police Officer Florencio Quitugua Falig, 47, assigned at the Department of Public Safety’s Patrol Section, was served with an arrest warrant for theft in Kagman.

At a hearing yesterday, Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho imposed a $5,000 cash bail and set the preliminary hearing for June 20 at 9am.

Camacho appointed assistant public defender Matthew Meyer as counsel for Falig. Assistant attorney general Shannon Foley appeared for the government.

Camacho also found out that Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Falig last May 12 for failing to appear in court at the scheduled May 2 hearing in a small claim filed against him by Express Financial.

It is not clear why DPS did not serve the bench warrant to Falig.

With the arrest of Falig, Camacho quashed the bench warrant and ordered the officer to appear before Kim-Tenorio for the small claim yesterday at 1:30pm.

Assistant public defender Meyer asked the court to release Falig on his own recognizance. He cited the nature of the allegations and stated that possibly it is a simple mistake, and that Falig has been a police officer for 20 years, and has no criminal record.

Camacho then noted that Falig has prior cases that include violation of Family Protection Act, contempt of court, small claims, breach of contract, and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Police Detective Catherine B. Pangelinan stated in her report that police investigation began last Wednesday when a police officer was making a routine check by the pavilion in Kagman 1 and a concerned citizen approached and disclosed about a police officer stealing a cell phone at Brother’s Market.

The concerned citizen expressed disappointment seeing a police officer stealing a cell phone inside the store. The concerned citizen added that the owner of the phone and some of the store’s customers were very upset when they saw from the surveillance camera’s footage that the person who took the phone is a police officer.

Pangelinan said during their interview last Thursday, the concerned citizen disclosed that he was inside Brother’s Market when a teacher came into the establishment, looking for her cell phone that she forgot.

Since the teacher could not find the cell phone, she and the store’s employees then reviewed the footage of the surveillance camera. The store employee identified the person in the footage as a boating safety police officer.

Pangelinan said shown a photo lineup containing 21 photos of police officers, the employee identified Falig as the person he saw taking the cell phone on the candy box and hiding it on his left hip side.

Pangelinan said Falig used to be assigned at Boating Safety and is now a patrol officer.

Pangelinan said during her interview last Thursday, the victim said she went to Brother’s Market on Wednesday at 9:30pm to buy something.

The victim said she remembers leaving her gold Samsung 12 cell phone from IT&E with gold cover on the candy box on top of the cashier’s counter. After 20 minutes upon arrival at home, she realized she forgot her phone at the store so she came back, but it was no longer on the candy box.

When the victim requested to review the camera’s footage, the store’s employee then told her that a police officer took the phone.

Shown a photo lineup containing 21 photos of police officers, the victim identified Falig as the person she observed in the footage taking her phone.

Pangelinan said the victim was very upset because the phone contained photos of her students as well as other important information.

Pangelinan said the store employee told her that the clear footage showed that a woman pointed out the cell phone on the candy box, then Falig took it and hid it to his left hip side, while the cashier was busy using the cash register.

The employee said Falig, their regular customer, used to wear Boating Safety uniforms and drove a Boating Safety Nissan truck.

Pangelinan said during an interview, the woman who pointed the cell phone to Falig admitted that she told the officer about the phone because he was standing next to her.

The woman said Falig took the phone and stated he was going to return it.

Pangelinan said the woman recalled that last Thursday, the owner of the phone came to her house and asked about her missing phone.

Pangelinan said the woman stated that the next morning, she walked over to Falig’s house and told him to return the phone because the owner was looking for her and that she doesn’t like that.