The Public Security Police (PSP) arrested three mainland men on Tuesday for stealing a wallet from a tourist, and on the same day busted an illegal inn in Zape, where the trio were nabbed, PSP spokeswoman Kong Chi Ian said during a regular press conference yesterday.
The suspects in their fifties are a man surnamed Deng who told the police that he’s a businessman, a man surnamed Tang who claimed to be jobless, and a farmer surnamed Liu.
Tang and Liu were arrested for their alleged involvement in another theft case in 2017.
On Monday, a male tourist from the mainland reported to the police that while walking in a Cotai casino, he was jostled by a group of men. Later, he discovered that the zip on his backpack was open, and his wallet containing 1,600 patacas was gone.
After identifying the trio through CCTV footage, PSP officers apprehended them in a three-bedroom flat in Zape on Tuesday. Deng confessed to the theft, admitting that he noticed the victim’s open backpack zip and “succumbed to temptation”, directing his accomplices to participate in the theft. Tang and Liu denied any involvement.
The stolen wallet, discarded by the suspects in a Cotai casino toilet, was recovered there. The police found cash on the three men, suspected to be the stolen money.
During the investigation, it was revealed that the flat, leased by a mainland man surnamed He, where the trio stayed, was also home to an overstayer. He confessed to operating the illegal inn, charging the trio a daily rent of 450 patacas, while the overstayer paid him 100 patacas to sleep in the living room. He told the police that he rented the flat from an acquaintance he met in a casino for 10,000 patacas, earning a monthly profit of 20,000 patacas with the illegal inn.
The trio and He were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), where He faces a charge of aiding and abetting an overstayer, while the trio face theft charges.
This undated photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows PSP officers escorting the mainland theft suspects to a police station in Taipa.
