Two mainlanders from Guizhou province were arrested last week for burgling a flat in Rua Nova à Guia on Christmas Day, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kam Fai said at a special press conference yesterday.
The two male suspects who are both in their thirties, surnamed Wang and Ran, told the police that they are construction workers.
According to Cheong, the Public Security Police (PSP) referred a burglary case last Saturday to the Judiciary Police (PJ). A local woman, in her forties, and her niece had lost valuables which they kept at home in Rua Nova à Guia.
The woman told the police that she lives with her niece. They left home together at about 6 p.m. on Christmas Day and returned home at around 11 p.m. Both soon discovered that their bedrooms had been ransacked. Her niece then discovered that some foreign currency notes she kept in her bedroom drawer had vanished while the other victim discovered that one of the locked drawers in her bedroom had been forced open and a diamond necklace, some foreign currency notes and some zodiac banknotes had vanished as well.
Both reported a total loss of valuables worth more than 25,000 patacas.
Thanks to CCTV footage, PJ officers discovered that Wang and Ran entered Macau on Christmas Eve. They went into the victim’s building at about 8 p.m. on Friday and climbed through the transom of the stairs to the balcony of the victim’s flat. The duo entered the flat and stayed there for about an hour and returned to their hotel in the city centre. Afterwards, they went to a telecom shop and bought a smartphone. The duo checked out of the hotel the next day and checked into another hotel in the city centre. PJ officers went to the hotel and arrested them on the same day, according to Cheong.
The officers seized more than 160 zodiac banknotes, a quantity of foreign currency notes, the smartphone which the duo had bought, the clothes they wore as well as some burglary tools they used for committing the crime, Cheong said.
According to Cheong, both suspects denied committing the crime and the Judiciary Police believe that the duo may possibly have committed other burglaries as the victim had lost about 20 zodiac banknotes but the PJ officers seized more than 160 zodiac banknotes from the suspects. PJ officers also retrieved the zodiac banknotes from the telecom shop which the suspects used to pay for the smartphone.
The duo were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing an aggravated theft charge, according to Cheong.
The two suspects – one of them wearing a facemask and the other a hood provided by the police – are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle in yesterday. Photos: Iong Tat Choi
Evidence seized from the suspects such as a smartphone, burglary tools, zodiac banknotes and foreign currency banknotes are displayed during yesterday’s special press conference about the case at the PJ headquarters.
