A local woman was arrested last Thursday for stealing a friend’s handbag and valuables worth a total of 41,940 patacas, Public Security Police (PSP) Kam Ka Kit said at a press briefing yesterday.
The 35-year-old local jobless suspect is surnamed Leong.
According to Kam, a local woman reported to the police last Tuesday that she had lost her handbag on January 9 with valuables inside including a purse, an earphone and some cash totalling over 40,000 patacas. She told the police that she went to a bar with a friend in Avenida da Prosperidade in Taipa (氹仔順榮大馬路) in the wee hours of Sunday, January 9.
After returning home she discovered that she had lost her handbag worth 35,000 patacas, which contained a number of valuables. The victim called her friend who had been in the bar with her to ask her about the handbag. The victim’s friend told her that she had no idea what had happened to it. So the victim reported the case to the police.
Kam said that the Public Security Police scrutinised CCTV footage of the bar and the nearby area. They discovered that the victim’s friend (Leong) had taken her handbag and caught a taxi home to Rua Central da Areia Preta that day. PSP officers went to Leong’s home last Thursday to follow up on the investigation. Leong handed over the handbag and claimed that she was drunk that day so she did not know that she had taken her friend’s handbag. She claimed that she had only discovered the handbag when she cleaned her house right before the officers arrived.
Leong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) last Friday, facing an aggravated theft charge, according to Kam.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows PSP officers escorting the theft suspect to a police station in Taipa.
This undated handout photo released by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows evidence seized from the suspect such as a handbag, a purse, cash and clothes which she wore when committing the theft.
