PHILLIPINES COMPUTER STOLEN Stolen laptops, cell phones being sold on Internet - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos:

Stolen laptops, cell phones being sold on Internet

By Nancy C. Carvajal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:49:00 07/15/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- People who lost their laptop computers or cell phones to thieves should check sites on the Internet that offer secondhand electronic equipment.

Michael Arcilla, a marketing manager, did just that and found out that the Dell laptop computer, which was stolen from him in a San Juan City restaurant recently, was being offered for sale by a person with the user name “armzsore.” The computer had been stolen just a day before.

Arcilla said he immediately contacted the seller, who turned out to be 26-year-old male from Laon Laan, Manila. They later met in a coffee shop in a mall in Makati City on Friday.

“The moment I saw the laptop, I immediately knew it was mine because of a scratch on its surface,” he added.

“It cost me more than P134,000 because of additional accessories but (the suspect) was selling it to me for P43,995,” Arcilla said.

With the help of the mall’s security men, he said they apprehended the suspect and brought him to the nearest police station.

Eastern Police District director, Chief Superintendent Nilo de la Cruz, said the suspect’s arrest led to the discovery of the existence of an organized syndicate buyingstolen materials and selling them on the Internet.

Senior Superintendent Eduardo Villena, head of the EPD District Investigation and Detective Management Division, however, said that with the intervention of three lawyers, the suspect was ordered released on Monday by a prosecutor “for formal investigation.”