An electric bike (e-bike) driver in Lapu-Lapu City lost his cellphone and P100 to a passenger.

The incident happened in Barangay Bankal on June 25, 2025.

A netizen posted the incident warning others about the person who was seen holding the cellphone of the e-bike driver a few minutes before he left with the device. After which, the person who bought the cellphone expressed willingness to return the device.

With the help of a former barangay councilman of Agus, the netizen traced the person who bought the cellphone and turned over the item to Police Station 4.

In the morning of June 26, 2025, the e-bike driver appeared at the police station to claim the gadget. Upon checking, he learned that the device already went through a reformat that has deleted all photographs and contact numbers stored in his cellphone.

To check if the photographs were saved via cloud storage, a staff member of Police Station 4 had the device connected to wi-fi (wireless fidelity) and helped determine that the victim's photos with his family have been saved to Google Photos.

The 45-year-old e-bike driver, Dino Michael, said that at past 2 p.m. on June 25, 2025, the suspect borrowed P100 from him and asked to be ferried to Sitio Agus Gamay. Upon reaching a chapel in Sitio Agus Gamay, the passenger borrowed his cellphone and pretended that he would replenish the phone's load credit.

In a CCTV footage of a residence in the area, the man was caught passing through and holding two cellphones.

The e-bike driver was also seen going after the suspect.

However, the CCTV footage did not capture the rest of the incident. But according to the victim, the suspect tried to evade by passing through another alleyway at the back of another residence.

The e-bike driver lost track of the suspect, and later learned that he was duped by his own passenger.

He said the incident pained him because it took a long time for him to save up to be able to buy the cellphone.

He said that the incident troubled him, he was not able to pay his rental for the e-bike due on June 25, 2025.

According to Lt. Col. Christian Torres, spokesperson of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office, they are working on determining the identity of the suspect.