Urban Legends

The Kleptomaniac

The Kleptomaniac

Actually, I don't know if I should include this here, because this can be just a gossip or some what a joke. Well urban legends came also from these sources and the public just took it very serious.

There's this intriguing blind item in showbiz (show business) in the Philippines by a tabloid news paper. The said news paper didn't mention the name of the celebrity suspected of being a kleptomaniac.

The Blind Item

[Taken from a Showbiz News Website:]

"There is a fly in the ointment in what is generally perceived to be wedded bliss of a very popular showbiz couple. The husband found out that her [sic] angelic wife, a scion of an old haciendero family, suffers from kleptomania. It was only recently that he was shocked to learn, after being told by an executive of a ritzy Makati department store, that his wife was caught shoplifting.

"The guy immediately proceeded to the store, paid double the amount involved (which were for small items really) and asked the management to clamp down on the incident. But the incident was repeated several times. The embarrassed husband hired a security guard to look after the wife. The guard was instructed to watch discreetly but closely if the wife shoplifts and pay for the item without creating a fuss.

"The husband has confronted the wife about this malady and the wife had agreed to undergo psychotherapy in St. Luke's Hospital in Quezon City. The latest word is the wife is now seeing a shrink regularly."

It turned out that the alarming blind item is talking about the angelic lady Ms. Lucy Torres-Gomez, and his husband Mr. Richard Gomez.

What is a Kleptomaniac?

Before we go on to our story, let's start by explaining what kleptomaniac actually is.

Kleptomania is the inability to refrain from the urge to steal items for reasons other than personal use or financial gain. First described in 1816, kleptomania is presently classified in psychiatry as an impulse control disorder. Alternatively, some of the main characteristics of the disorder, which consist of recurring intrusion feelings, an inability to resist the urge to steal, and a release of pressure following the theft, suggest that kleptomania could be an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder, although this is disputed.

Actually, kleptomaniac person doesn't steal large items just like those of real thieves. Instead, they only steal fancy thing, or should I say cute things. The adventurous feeling of getting something from others is the satisfying thing they often wanted to feel.

Investigations and Conclusions

Medias and other simple individual person took the conclusions about the names of the celebrities in the blind item. They took it seriously.

Showbiz TV Shows in every network made investigations and conclusions to defunct the rumor. Some of them claimed that the blind item is true, but some told it isn't

[Taken from a Showbiz News Website:]

ABS-CBN PICKS UP. The "Lucy Torres-Gomez shoplifting incident" grew even louder when shows and people from the TV network ABS-CBN picked up the rumor.

The now-defunct showbiz-oriented ABS-CBN show Ek! Channel began running a story about the rumor in January 2005, complete with reenactment.

ABS-CBN newscasters Ces Drillon and Karen Davila also touched on the rumor. Ces did her own investigating and began asking around, while Karen was supposed to be keeping the "surveillance tape" of the whole "shoplifting and arresting" scene that happened in the "ritzy Makati department store" mentioned in the blind item. This establishment was also identified as Rustan's Department Store.

The Buzz was also getting ready to launch its own take on the rumor, as it grew even louder in cyberspace through web forum discussions and emails, complete with the "conversation" between Lucy and the guards who "caught" her "shoplifting."

And in the emails and forums, the rumor began to sound believable since the pinpointed sources of the story were "people from ABS-CBN."

For almost a year, nothing was heard from the subject of the shoplifting rumor. Lucy kept quiet in the hope that the rumor would die a natural death.

But it didn't. So, Lucy finally spoke up.

The GMA Network S-Files claimed that it was not true.

[Taken from a Showbiz News Website:]

AFFIRMING LUCY'S GOOD NAME. Rustan's Department Store, responding to a query made by the GMA-7's S-Files, issued this official statement made by its own president Bienvenido Tantoco Jr.

"It has come to our attention that there are rumors circulating that Mrs. Lucy Torres-Gomez was caught shoplifting in Rustan's. We would like the public to know that there is no truth to this and that Mrs. Lucy Torres-Gomez is a customer of good standing and is welcome in any of our establishments at anytime."

Saddened by how it easy it is for anyone to make up a story and mask it as truth, Lucy accepted the fact that, being married to Richard Gomez, something like this was bound to happen. She said, "I guess nothing just really prepares you for it when it really happens already. At the back of my mind it has always been there."

She just has to prepare herself for more of something like this in the future, Lucy said. But she resolved that next time she will not be passive anymore. She will meet the insults squarely.

SOURCE: February 2005 issue, YES! magazine