Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam announced two theft cases yesterday, in which a male university student from Hong Kong and a local man with a criminal record were arrested separately on Monday and Tuesday for, respectively, stealing cigars from at least nine members of a leisure club in Nape and burgling a flat in a residential building on Rua Três do Bairro da Areia Preta.
Police nab HK university student for stealing cigars
According to Ho, upon receiving a report from a staff member of the leisure club on Monday saying that a male member was caught red-handed stealing cigars from the cabinets of other members in the club, PJ officers arrived at the scene and arrested the 23-year-old suspect surnamed Kwok.
Ho said the police suspect that Kwok had taken advantage of being a member of the club to open the cabinets of at least nine fellow members without authorisation on several occasions since the middle of last month, starting with stealing one or two cigars to pilfering a whole box.
Three victims told the police that their cigars had been swapped with low-quality ones, resulting in a loss of 50,577 patacas in total, according to Ho.
Kowk denied the theft, claiming that he had taken others’ cigars home without authorisation to admire and take photos of them, Ho said, adding that PJ officers found at least two boxes of stolen cigars at his home on Avenida do Nordeste.
The police are continuing their investigation to trace the whereabouts of the remaining stolen cigars, Ho noted.
Man with criminal record burgles flat in Areia Preta
Meanwhile, according to Ho, the Public Security Police (PSP) referred a burglary case to the Judiciary Police for follow-up investigation in the wee hours of Tuesday, in which a victim whose gender was not revealed reported to the police that after being awakened at about 3 a.m. that day, he or she found a thief searching his or her bedroom, reporting a loss of over 1,300 patacas in cash, while his or her roommate reported a loss of 3,800 patacas in cash.
Ho said that the suspect fled the scene after being stopped by the victim, adding that PJ officers who arrived at the scene found a metal pole outside the metal gate of the flat, with pry marks found on the gate.
The Judiciary Police identified the suspect as a 66-year-old local man surnamed Pun who was jailed for four years in 2008 for burglary, according to Ho, who noted that PJ officers arrested Pun and recovered part of the stolen money at his home in Iao Hon district on Tuesday morning.
Under questioning, Pun admitted that he had randomly pried open the gate of a residential flat with a metal pole at night and burgled it because of his gambling debts.
Both Kwok and Pun were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of aggravated theft.
The hooded suspected burglar (left) and the hooded Hong Kong university theft suspect are separately escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers to PJ vehicles from the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photos: Yuki Lei
