A Filipino was arrested on Friday for burglary after stealing 13,000 patacas from two shops last week, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a special press conference on Saturday.
Lei identified the suspect as a 40-year-old non-resident worker (NRW) surnamed Nuevos who told police he works as a cook. Both victims’ outlets are in the peninsula’s northern district.
According to Lei, the Judiciary Police received two separate reports from a pickup point owner and a fast food restaurant owner last Monday and on Friday, respectively.
Lei said that both victims told the Judiciary Police that when entering their premises they discovered that the door locks were damaged. Closed-circuit TV footage showed a burglar who, they later confirmed, stole 3,000 and 10,000 patacas in cash, respectively, from their cash registers. Separately, they reported the burglaries to the Judiciary Police.
Scrutinising the CCTV footage, PJ officers confirmed that the suspect who broke into both outlets was the same individual – Nuevos. The officers also discovered that before committing each burglary, he tried to disguise himself by changing his clothes in his flat in the northern district.
After the burglaries, Lei said, he returned to the flat to change back into his normal clothing to avoid suspicion. He also roamed the surrounding streets in an attempt to evade police investigation.
According to Lei, around 2 p.m. on Friday, PJ officers intercepted Nuevos in a building in the northern district and recovered the clothes worn during the two burglaries from the flat in the northern district.
Lei said that the suspect refused to cooperate, and at the time of Saturday’s press conference the whereabouts of the stolen money remained unknown.
Nuevos was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Offices (MP) on Saturday, facings aggravated theft charges.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded suspect to a PJ van outside the PJ headquarters in Zape on Saturday. – Photo: Armindo Neves
