The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a mainland man when he was gambling at a casino in the city centre on Sunday afternoon for breaking into two flats in a residential building in Taipa in the wee hours of that day, PJ spokesman Chan Wun Man said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to Chan, the 55-year-old suspect, surnamed Yuan, has a criminal record for burglary in Macau in 2013 where he was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.
The two burglaries happened in the early hours of Sunday in a residential building on Rua de Bragança in Taipa, according to Chan, who pointed out that two victims reported to the police a loss of valuables worth 7,100 patacas and 700 patacas in cash respectively.
A male resident reported a burglary to the police at 4:45 a.m. on Sunday, pointing out that while smoking in his living room, he saw a stranger coming out of the kitchen, adding that the stranger immediately climbed out of the kitchen window and escaped from the flat, after the victim had shouted at him, Chan said.
While investigating the case, Chan added, the Judiciary Police received another report on the same day from a woman living in the same building as the male victim, saying that her flat had been burgled.
Chan pointed out that PJ officers identified the suspect as Yuan who changed the clothes he had worn when committing the burglaries before he went from Taipa to the peninsula. He was arrested at a local casino in the city centre on Sunday afternoon.
Under questioning, Yuan admitted that due to gambling losses, he climbed over the building’s outdoor air conditioning units and broke into the two flats, adding that he had quickly gambled away the victims’ money.
Yuan, who legally entered Macau on Thursday, was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing aggravated theft charges.
The hooded burglary suspect from the mainland is escorted by police officers yesterday to a vehicle outside the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters in Zape.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
