Okay, so here's the bad news story I have to tell you about to serve as a warning when hiring a driver.  Last November, my balikbayan sister-in-law was in town to buy some materials for her dental clinic.  Since her mom's car was still in the casa being repaired because it was flooded during Ondoy, she asked if she could borrow my car.  She would either drive it herself or get a driver for her short stay.  I lent her my Hyundai Tucson -- a small SUV with only 30,000km -- easy to drive and park.  She hired a Bernardo Gotianse Santiago, a temporary (arawan) driver (picture below) whom they had used before and who had been recommended by the driver of a rental car company located in Bel-Air.  (Santiago was a former driver at the rental car company as well but had been let go for reasons we were about to find out.)  All things were as they usually were with Santiago being his inquisitive, talkative self -- talking to the maids of the household and to drivers who he got in contact with while doing the errands of my sister-in-law. 

 

In the evening (around 730 pm) of Nov. 22, Sunday, my sister-in-law and her mom were attending a children's party at an exclusive club in Forbes when my sister-in-law received a text from her driver that he would be at the CR of the club if she should look for him.  This driver does not like using the facilities for drivers and goes to the "members only" CR.  On his way out of the CR, he was seen from the coffee shop by a club member who recognized him as his family driver from about 10 years ago whom he suspected of having carnapped 2 of his cars.  He stopped Santiago along the hallway and asked him his name.  Santiago garbled something that sounded vaguely Muslim and walked quickly away toward the visitor parking lot.  The club member followed in order to see where he was parked.  He called one of the club security guards over and asked him to inquire from the driver what his name was.  The guard (chief of security) went to the car and knocked on the window.  Santiago brought the window down 3 inches and when he was asked what his name was he quickly brought the window back up, and swiftly drove the car out of the lot towards the entrance.  As a result, he sideswiped the security guard and hit his thigh.  The s/g used his radio to alert the guards at the gate to stop the speeding car as the driver was suspected to be carnapping a car.  He sped through one gate and the tire was shot at by another s/g in an attempt to stop the car.  He missed and hit the front right door.  The exit half of the larger gate at the main entrance was closed by another security guard but the carnapper swerved to the entrance half of the gate on the left.  As he passed the guard, another shot was fired which hit the front left window and shattered it.  A last shot was fired and hit the license plate at the back of the car as it sped off into Mckinley road.  Another club member who happened to be near the scene chased the carnapper in his car and was able to follow him to Guadalupe (Makati) but he didn't enter the esquinita as there were a lot of "tambays" there.  He went back to the club and told the guards that he was willing to show them were the carnapper went but the s/gs said this was way beyond their jurisdiction.  They had to report the matter to the Makati police.

 

My sister-in-law in the meantime, was raring to go home and was looking for the driver at the parking lot when she saw there was a commotion at the lobby.  This was when she was told that her driver was a suspected carnapper and had sped off with my car and shots were fired.  She, her mom, and the security guards went to the Intercon Police Station and that was when I received the call to come over to Precinct 6 to file a police report re my carnapped vehicle.

 

If you think you know everything there is to know about a crime after watching endless police and csi stories, you have a good think coming.  The precinct was located at the top floor of the old SM parking building at the back of Intercon.  Very dark and scary.  After taking down everyone's story by hand in his logbook, the policeman in charge proceeded to type in a report in the computer.  We were told that we had to submit the report to the Makati ANCAR (Anti-carnapping) unit located near the Fire Station at the corner of Ayala ang Buendia.  The printer apparently had run out of black ink so our report was printed out in some combination of brown, blue, and yellow.  Thank goodness one of the policemen accompanied us to the Ancar.

 

At Ancar, after presenting the report and telling our individual stories all over again.  An alarm was sent out to all police stations and personnel out on the road about the carnapped vehicle.  By 12 midnight, they had located my bullet-ridden car, abandoned along a side street off JP Rizal in Guadalupe Viejo.  I had to go back to Alabang to get my spare key (I hadn't thought to bring it with me) and I brought a camera as well.  I took photos of my poor car that looked so forlorn in the dark across what seemed like a jeepney terminal near the Pasig River.  Since only one of the policemen could drive, I drove my car, bubog on the seats and all, back to Ancar.  The alarm for the car was cancelled but the alarm re the carnapper continued.  I got home around 2 am the following morning in shock and trying to figure out what I had to do next.

 

In the next few days, I went back and forth between the ancar unit and the Makati city court (located in the new 20-storey (?) city hall building where the electronic elevator buttons don't work.  I swore about the truth of my testimony and complaint against the carnapper in front of a fiscal, paid fees, and watched at Ancar how a Soco (Scene of the Crime Operative -- our version of CSI) investigation is conducted.  But first, I had to buy film for their camera first -- kawawa naman pala ang Soco natin because there is only one Soco to serve the whole Metro-Manila area kaya parang naglalagari na sila between crime scenes.  Gabi na by the time they inspected my car -- mabuti na lang bright ang mga streetlights sa police parking lot.  The head of the team seemed very competent while the others were still under various levels of training.  They recovered three 9 mm slugs.  This is when I discovered that the bullet that hit the rear door had destroyed the lock mechanism as well as ricocheted through my 2 new payongs and destroyed a trim under the back seats.  I told my sister-in-law that they were lucky they weren't in the car.  Tthis driver must have 9 lives because the bullet that shattered the front left window went through to the right front door and di pa rin siya natamaan (no blood in the car to indicate gunshot wounds).

 

In the course of the investigation we found out that Santiago's name is just one of many aliases and his 2 addresses were fictitious.  We also found out the hard way that the rental company who had originally hired this driver had been informed last January that he had also carnapped the car of an elderly lady.  This was the reason they let him go except that unfortunately, they failed to communicate this fact to the clients who had hired Santiago through their company.  It turns out that he probably works with a gang and since he is incredibly glib, he is the one who applies as "driver" and gathers information for the rest of the gang.  He targets old couples or old widows who have only a few household help and are therefore vulnerable.  While on duty with a client, he establishes a network with the maids, and other drivers he encounters to find out more about the circumstances of his prospects.  My own driver says Santiago was asking if he could help him find a job in our village and this was only during a short visit to my sister-in-law's house!

 

I have attached a photo of this man -- he may have another name by now and if he has been doing this for at least 10 years, he is probably back trying to find a new job as driver.  Please pass this on to warn others.  But please delete my name and email address when you forward it because I still have a complaint filed against him in court.

 

A Hapless Car Owner

Picture of Carnapper