Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam announced yesterday the arrest of a burglar in the mainland, who on Saturday broke into a villa in Estrada de Santa Sancha, Penha Hill, stealing about HK$10 million worth of valuables.
“After an in-depth investigation, the Judiciary Police have identified the suspect as a man from the mainland, who at 10 p.m. on August 3 [this past Saturday] climbed over the villa’s wall and smashed the window next to the main door to carry out the burglary, stealing a large amount of jewellery and other property from the safe in the villa with tools such as crowbar, hammer and shovel. While carrying out the crime, the suspect injured himself and was bleeding, leaving bloodstains in the villa,” Ho said during yesterday’s special press conference.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police received a report of a burglary at a villa on Estrada de Santa Sancha at around 1 p.m. on Sunday from a local man, reportedly a relative of the female local owner of the villa, saying that when he went to the villa to do household chores as usual earlier that day, he found that the side window next to the villa’s main door had been broken, with a large amount of blood left on the floor, and there was evidence of the house having been looted, adding that the safe which was originally placed in a cloakroom had been moved to the corridor and pried open, with a crowbar, hammer and shovel left next to it, resulting in the loss of jewellery and non-local currencies valued at about HK$10 million.
A PJ investigation showed, Ho said, that after the nearly three-hour burglary, the suspect took off and discarded the blood-stained clothes he was wearing at the time of the crime in the bushes near the villa, then walked to a hotel in Nape, where he put on another set of clothes. The suspect absconded to the mainland via the Hengqin border checkpoint at 3 a.m. on Sunday.
The Judiciary Police, according to Ho, immediately activated a cooperation mechanism with their counterparts in the mainland. Under the command of the Guangdong Public Security Department, the Zhuhai Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) arrested at 3 p.m. on Sunday the burglar – a 40-year-old surnamed Li – in Zhongshan City. The Judiciary Police at 4 p.m. on the same day arrested a mainland man – a 34-year-old surnamed Liu whom Li had met with at the guestroom of a hotel in Nape after the burglary – for shielding Li.
In the operation, Ho noted, Zhuhai’s PSB officers recovered most of the stolen goods, while PJ officers found a blood-stained eco-friendly bag in the hotel guestroom.
Liu, who insisted that he did not know anything about the burglary carried out by Li, was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday.
This undated handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows part of the stolen goods including jewellery and banknotes recovered by the mainland police.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam (centre) and two senior PJ officers host yesterday’s special press conference about a burglary at a Penha Hill villa in a pressroom of the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
