A domestic helper from the Philippines has been arrested after she pocketed 2,000 patacas in cash that a man had inadvertently dropped in the street earlier this month, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Lei Chan Hong said during a regular press conference yesterday.
A local man in his forties, while walking in Rua das Schimas (紅荷路) in Coloane’s Concórdia Industrial Park earlier this month, pulled his smartphone out of his trouser pocket. He later discovered that 2,000 patacas in cash that had been in his pocket had vanished, and believed that the cash had been inadvertently pulled out and had fallen to the ground when he took out his smartphone.
After the man searched for the cash in the area but found nothing, he suspected that it had been picked up and kept by someone. He reported the matter to the police.
After reviewing the citywide CCTV camera system, the police confirmed that shortly after the man inadvertently dropped the cash in the street, the Filipina, surnamed Agohayon, while walking past there, picked up the cash – two 1,000-pataca banknotes – and immediately left the scene.
The police intercepted the suspect, who is in her forties, in Rua dos Bombaxes (紅棉路), a street located in the nearby One Oasis private residential community, on Thursday last week.
Under questioning, she admitted to picking up and keeping the cash out of a moment of greed, confessing that she had spent all the money.
She has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further investigation, facing a theft-by-finding charge.
This undated handout photo released by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows police officers escorting the theft-by-finding suspect to a police station in Taipa.
