A woman claiming that she suffers from depression was arrested on Sunday for stealing a handbag worth 680 patacas from a food shop in Areia Preta earlier that day, Public Security Police (PSP) spokeswoman Erica Cheong Im Sim said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The 57-year-old local suspect is surnamed Ho.
According to Cheong, a female non-resident worker reported to the police on Sunday that her handbag worth 680 patacas had disappeared. She told the police that she works in a food shop and put her handbag on a grocery shelf that day. She discovered that her handbag had vanished later in the day and reported the case to the police.
Ho said that PSP officers identified the suspect after scrutinising CCTV footage and arrested Ho at her home in Areia Preta later that day. The officers seized the handbag as well as the clothes Ho wore when committing the crime. Ho told the police that she suffers from depression and she had taken antidepressants before she went shopping earlier that day.
Ho claimed that when she returned home she discovered a handbag in the plastic carrier bag which she had put the food that she had bought in the shop in. However, she could not remember how the handbag ended up in the carrier bag and kept it at home. She claimed that she planned to take the handbag to a police station later.
Cheong said that Ho had shown an appointment slip issued by the public Conde de S. Januário Hospital Centre to PSP officers, but she did not have any prescription for anti-depressants or antidepressant drugs at home.
Ho has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a theft charge, according to Cheong.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows the theft suspect being escorted by PSP officers to a vehicle.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows the stolen handbag and the clothes which the suspect wore when stealing the handbag.
