A mainland man who had pawned a mobile phone stole it after asking the shopkeeper of the pawn shop to give him the phone to find a friend’s phone number, and when the police arrested him they discovered that he was overstaying in Macau, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Wong Wai Chon said during a regular press conference on Wednesday.
The suspect, surnamed Jiang, aged 32, holds a mainland identity document and is unemployed.
Under questioning, Wong said Jiang admitted that he had lost all his money gambling in local casinos and committed the crime out of greed.
The police received a report last Friday from a pawn shop on Rua de Xangai that a man had pawned his mobile phone on Thursday night and obtained 5,000 patacas before returning to the pawnshop the next day, claiming that he wanted to find his friend’s contact number from the phone, according to Wong.
However, the suspect grabbed the phone when the pawnbroker was distracted and fled, Wong said, adding that afterwards he tried to do the same thing at another pawn shop on Avenida 24 de Junho, but was intercepted by the pawnbroker.
Wong said the pawnbroker on Avenida 24 de Junho then reported the crime to the police, who by then had already been informed about the theft from a pawn shop in Rua de Xangai.
The suspect was charged with fraud, and the case has been handed over to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) for further investigation, Wong noted.
