The Public Security Police (PSP) arrested two mainland men early Thursday morning for stealing money from the Four-Faced Buddha’s (formally known as “Phra Phrom”) offertory box in Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira in Taipa, PSP spokesman Wong Wai Chon said on Friday.
According to Wong, the jobless duo, aged 43 and 34, are surnamed Mo and Meng. Both hold two-way travel permits to Macau.
During Friday’s regular press conference, Wong said that the Public Security Police received a report from a member of the public at about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, saying that he or she saw two men suspected of using tools such as a rope to steal cash from an offertory box at the Four-Faced Buddha. Wong said that PSP officers who rushed to the shrine arrested the two suspects, who were counting money in the bushes near the scene of the crime.
In the operation, according to Wong, the officers seized from the duo more than HK$1,490 and 640 patacas in cash, as well as more than a dozen empty lai see red envelopes, a rope and other suspected tools used in the theft, while also seizing more tools and over 85,000 patacas in cash from their hotel guestroom in the city centre. Wong said that the police did not rule out the possibility that the 85,000 patacas is the proceeds of theft, as the two failed to give a reasonable explanation for the origin of the cash.
Under questioning, Mo admitted that he had brought his tools to Macau to commit the theft after hitting a losing streak in local casinos, while Mong denied committing the crime, insisting that he was just watching Mo stealing the cash.
The two suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing aggravated theft charges, Wong noted.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) on Friday shows evidence seized from the mainland theft suspects, such as HK dollar and pataca banknotes.
