A mainlander was arrested on Monday for burgling a flat in Nape last November while his wife was caught later that day receiving the stolen goods from her husband, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a special press conference on Tuesday.
The couple are a 29-year-old unemployed man surnamed Yang and his 33-year-old wife surnamed Tian who told the police that she works in a kindergarten.
According to Ho, Public Security Police (PSP) passed a burglary case to the Judiciary Police (PJ) for follow-up investigation on 18 November last year. The case concerned the break-in in a flat on the upper floor of a residential building in Rua de Londres in Nape.
The female victim told the police that when she opened a drawer of her dressing table earlier that day she discovered that a gold chain was missing. She immediately checked her belongings and found that some of the locked drawers in a wardrobe in her bedroom had been pried open and a number of valuables were missing.
The victim informed the police that the valuables including two diamond rings, a gold necklace, a gold bracelet, multiple pieces of gold jewellery, cash in patacas and non-local currencies had disappeared, a loss worth more than MOP 170,000.
According to the investigation, the Judiciary Police concluded that Yang broke into the flat, and when scrutinising CCTV footage, PJ officers confirmed that Yang followed residents into the building at about 3 pm on 16 November and left after about 40 minutes. The Judiciary Police confirmed that Yang had returned to the mainland via the Barrier Gate checkpoint on the following day (17 November) after the burglary, Ho said.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police discovered that Yang and his wife re-entered Macao on Friday via the Barrier Gate checkpoint. The police suspected that they were preparing to commit crimes again so PJ officers put them under surveillance. The officers saw Yang enter another residential building in Nape at about 1 pm on Monday and intercepted him in the lobby of the building and seized some burglary tools, a glove and a number of non-local currency notes. At the same time, the Judiciary Police intercepted Tian near a hotel in the same district, and found a number of diamond rings and pieces of gold jewellery on her, Ho said.
Under questioning, Yang denied committing the crime while Tian failed to explain how she got the jewellery. The victim identified two diamond rings and a gold necklace as the valuables stolen from her flat, according to Ho.
Ho said the Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation whether the couple committed other crimes in Macao.
The couple were transferred separately to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Tuesday. Yang faces an aggravated theft charge while Tian faces a fencing charge, according to Ho.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macao News)
Photo by Exmoo
