Four mainlanders – two men and two women – were arrested in a hotel on Estrada da Baía de Nossa Senhora da Esperança in Taipa on May 25 for stealing goods worth over 30,000 patacas from at least six shops in the Macau peninsula and Cotai, a Public Security Police (PSP) spokesperson said at a regular press conference on Friday.
The spokesperson said that the four suspects, aged between 37 and 44, are surnamed Lu, Wu, Wei and Su, adding that Wei is the wife of Wu, while Su is Lu’s ex-wife.
According to the spokesperson, the Public Security Police received theft reports from shops in two hotels in Cotai separately on May 24, reporting a total loss of 6,800 patacas.
After scrutinising the police forces’ citywide CCTV surveillance system, the PSP identified the quartet as the suspects, the spokesperson said, adding that police officers arrested the four suspects in their guestrooms, where they recovered some of the stolen goods, including daily necessities, skin care products, medicines, and pharmaceutical products.
Under questioning, Lu, Wu and Wei, who admitted to committing the crimes, confessed that they evaded the shops’ anti-theft systems by putting the stolen goods in “modified bags”. The trio insisted that some of the stolen goods had been resold by Su for HK$1,600, according to the spokesperson. Su refused to cooperate with the investigation.
A PSP investigation confirmed that the quartet also stole a total of 24,960 patacas worth of goods from several shops in the city centre on May 23-24 with the same tactic, the spokesperson noted.
The four suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of aggravated theft.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) during Friday’s regular press conference shows the four theft suspects from the mainland being escorted by two police officers to a police station in Taipa.
