A supposedly sweet birthday present of a guy to his wife by surprising her with a life-size teddy bear on her natal day became a nightmare as he failed to outsmart the employees of Unitop Mall in the city by changing the tag price of the said item, now has to pay 10x more from the original amount.
The suspect Jefferson Dela Cruz, of legal age, was seen on the CCTV camera doing unusual in the toy section of the mall which called the attention of the security personnel.
At first, he insisted that he did nothing wrong, but after seeing the footage, he finally admitted what he had done.
Police Captain Aaron Elona, chief of PNP Station 1 confirmed that the incident was reported to them and both parties agreed to settle the matter of their own.
“Hindi na tumuloy sa pag-file ng case ang Unitop at nagpabayad nalang kaya pinag-usap namin sila at kung ano ang mapagkasunduan nilang katunayan na hindi na itutuloy ang pag-file ng kaso,” Elona told Palawan Daily News.
Based on reports, the management of the mall is charging Dela Cruz 10x of the original price of the stuffed toy he tried to buy after changing its tag price from Php 1,799 to Php 899 or a total of Php 17,990 which later on fixed at Php 16,000.
Unitop Mall official confirmed that Dela Cruz gave five thousand pesos and promised to pay the remaining in 7 days in exchange of not filing a case.
According to Capt. Elona, this is a common problem of the police with the complainants.
“Kung pakiramdam n’yo na aragrabyado kayo, sampahan n’yo ng kaso kasi tulad n’yan, parang plano din ng accused na mag-file din ng kaso laban sa kanila,” he added.
Meanwhile, a legal expert told PDN that Dela Cruz is fortunate because Unitop management agreed on settlement with just a small amount considering that their name and company was dragged in an issue, which may affect their image and reputation.
“Agreement is binding both parties so walang masama dun o mali on the part of the mall dahil buti nga pumayag sila na ganun lang ang sibil na danyos dahil alam natin na malaking kompanya ito at gumagastos sila ng malaki para sa kanilang magandang pangalan tapos masisira lang dahil sa pag-akusa sa isang tao,” a legal expert said.
The lawyer added that human consideration is present with this particular situation because the company can even proceed on filing a criminal case and ask for damages, but in this case, they only asked for the damages taking note that it may be a large amount for an ordinary individual, but for a company like Unitop mall, they were asking only for a small amount.
“Malaki halaga para sa ordinaryong tao pero hindi sa pumapabor tayo sa Unitop pero malaking kompanya ang pinag-uusapan dito at maliit na amount lang ‘yan kumpara sa kung ano ang nakataya sa kanila na pwedeng masira dahil lamang dito,” he explained.
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