Rogelio Buscio's shoes were missing. It was the evening of July 27, 2005, and 30-year old Filipino Bucio was getting ready to leave the dormitory he shared with other Sanjo Metal Company Ltd. trainees to start his evening shift. He looked everywhere, asked everyone. Nobody was giving up the shoes.

"I knew then that someone was playing jokes on me," Bucio says. "So I pleaded and told everyone to please give me back my shoes, because I didn't want to be late for work. Nobody budged. I became desperate. I lost my cool."

What happened next set in motion a chain of events that would take over Bucio's life for the following year.