A local taxi driver and a non-resident worker (NRW) have been arrested separately for stealing a smartphone each, the Public Security Police (PSP) said in a statement on Monday.
The statement said that the taxi driver is in his sixties while the NRW is in his fifties.
According to the statement, a man lost his phone worth 8,400 patacas after getting out of a taxi in Avenida de Lisboa on January 8 and borrowed a smartphone from a shop nearby to call his phone. The victim then left the shop and reported the case to the police after no one had answered his phone, after which the shopkeeper, who lent the phone to the victim, received a call from the driver who said that he would not hand in the phone to the police.
Instead, the driver said that he would return the phone to the victim himself so that he could ask for an additional fare. The driver was called to a police station on January 9, during which he admitted that he had refused to give the phone to the authorities.
In the second case, a man reported to the police that he accidentally left his smartphone outside a shop on Avenida da Longevidade earlier this month, the statement said, adding that as soon as he realised he had left his phone behind he returned where he had left it but it was gone. He estimated a loss of 14,600 patacas.
After scrutinising their city-wide CCTV camera system, police identified the NRW and arrested him on January 9 in Areia Preta district. He admitted stealing the phone he found in the street and claimed that he had thrown it away soon after.
The two suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing theft-by-finding charges, the statement said.
These undated pixilated photos provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) on Monday shows the taxi driver (wearing a black sweater) and the non-resident worker (wearing a dark blue hoodie) being escorted by police officers to a police station.
