The Zhuhai Public Security Bureau transferred a local suspect in a theft case to the Judiciary Police (PJ) in Macau, between the border checkpoints of the two cities yesterday.
PJ spokesman Choi Ian Fai briefed reporters about the case after the transfer process of the suspect at the point of the handover.
Choi identified the suspect as a 38-year-old man surnamed Ng who committed the crime late last year when he was working in a pawnshop in Zape.
According to Choi, the police received a report from the owner of the pawnshop on November 18 last year that he suspected that a staff member had stolen items worth HK$950,000 from the shop – HK$800,000 in cash, two platinum necklaces and two luxury watches.
After scrutinising CCTV footage at the shop, PJ officers identified Ng, who had been working in the shop for a year, as the suspect, Choi said.
According to Choi, PJ officers discovered that Ng had been stealing jewellery items – that customers had pawned at the shop – on several occasions when there were no customers or other staff members in the shop, since November 2.
According to Choi, PJ officers also found that Ng had stolen HK$800,000 in cash from the pawnshop on November 18, after which he told his colleague that he felt ill and had to leave. The shop was then unable to contact Ng, Choi said.
After investigating, PJ officers found that Ng then pawned the stolen items in four pawnshops in the city for HK$125,000, Choi said, adding that Ng subsequently fled to the mainland.
According to Choi, PJ officers found that Ng had been staying in Zhuhai after leaving Macau. The local police were then in contact with their Zhuhai counterparts about Ng.
Yesterday morning, Zhuhai police officers arrested Ng, before transferring him to Macau police in the afternoon, Choi said.
Choi said that the local police would investigate Ng’s motives for embezzling the pawnshop and find out what happened to the ill gotten gains.
A Zhuhai police officer (right) and two Judiciary Police (PJ) officers (first and second left) pose for a photo when the former transferred the hooded theft suspect to the latter two between the two cities’ border checkpoints yesterday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
