Two local men were arrested last Tuesday for stealing cables worth about 50,000 patacas from a construction site at the Macau Cotai Healthcare Complex on two occasions and selling them, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Lam Keong said during a regular press conference on Friday.
According to Lam, the two suspects, aged 56 and 46, are surnamed Lai and Wu respectively.
The Public Security Police received a report from one of the construction site’s security guards last Tuesday that when reviewing the site’s CCTV footage earlier that morning, he saw Lai wheeling the cables from the site on a trolley. The guard reported a loss of 50,000 patacas, Lam said.
Under questioning, Lai told the police that it was not the first time he had committed the crime, admitting that he had sneaked into the site on May 14, when he packed the cables into wooden boxes. Lai confessed that he and Wu entered the site again the next day with a trolley and stole the cables before loading them on to a lorry.
Based on Lai’s confession, the Public Security Police summoned Wu to a police station last Tuesday, Lam said, adding that the duo admitted to having received 2,600 patacas each for selling the cables to a recycling shop in Areia Preta district for 5,500 patacas after deducting 300 patacas for transportation.
Both suspects, who had previously worked on the site and claimed that they were in urgent need of money, have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of aggravated theft, according to Lam.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) on Friday shows police officers escorting the two theft suspects to a police station in Taipa.
