A man from South Korea vented his anger by damaging the wing mirrors of eight cars and 10 scooters parked near Hotel Royal with a brick after drinking and gambling away all his money, after which he stole about 30 gold necklaces from a pawnshop in Zape in the early hours of Monday when the male staff member on duty fell asleep, the Judiciary Police (PJ) and the Public Security Police (PSP) jointly announced during a special press conference yesterday.
The press conference was jointly hosted by PSP spokesman Wong Wai Chon and PJ spokesman Choi Ian Fai.
Choi identified the suspect as a 31-year-old surnamed Lee who entered Macau last Wednesday.
According to Wong, the police received multiple reports in the early hours of Monday that a number of vehicles parked near Hotel Royal had had their wing mirrors damaged by someone.
After scrutinising CCTV footage, the police confirmed that it was just a lone male who had damaged all the wing mirrors. They also confirmed that eight cars and 10 scooters had had their wing mirrors damaged. At around 1 p.m. on Monday, PSP officers saw a man near the Grand Lisboa casino-hotel who appeared to be the suspect they were looking for.
Under questioning by the PSP officers, the man – Lee – admitted to having damaged the wing mirrors. Lee told the police that he gambled all his money away on Sunday night, according to Wong, who said that the suspect then bought a quantity of alcoholic beverages, drinking and wandering around Grand Lisboa and nearby areas.
Venting his anger
Lee told the police that he felt “distressed” after hitting a losing streak. Seeing a brick on the ground and in order to vent his anger, Lee picked up it up and started to damage the wing mirrors, according to Wong.
According to Wong, the PSP officers also found many gold necklaces on Lee, believing that he was the suspect in a theft case at a pawnshop which was reported earlier that day. Consequently, the Public Security Police transferred Lee to the Judiciary Police for further questioning.
According to Choi, the theft occurred at a pawnshop in Rua de Nagasaki in Zape, which is near the PJ headquarters.
Sleeping staff
When the owner of the pawnshop returned to his shop at around 8:30 a.m. on Monday, he saw that a display cabinet had been destroyed by a brick – which had been left there – and that about 30 gold necklaces worth HK$350,000 had vanished, according to Choi. The owner asked the staff member on duty, a non-resident worker in his forties, who admitted that he had fallen asleep so that he failed to notice the destruction of the display cabinet and the theft of the about 30 necklaces. The owner reported the case to the police, Choi said.
CCTV footage showed that a man – Lee – tried to steal gold necklaces from the display cabinet when the staff member was sleeping at around 5 a.m. on Monday, but found that it was locked. Lee returned to the pawnshop at around 6 a.m., picked up a brick outside the shop, destroyed the display cabinet with it, and stole the about 30 gold necklaces before leaving.
Gold necklaces, cash, the stone the suspect used to smash the pawnshop’s display cabinet, and three items (a mobile phone, a bag and a pair of sunglasses) that the suspect bought after pawning several stolen necklaces, are displayed in a pressroom of the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters in Zape yesterday.Photo: Iong Tat Choi
