A male tourist from the mainland was arrested by the Public Security Police after caught stealing from a donation box at the Roman-Catholic Cathedral in the city centre, a PSP spokesperson said during a regular news press conference on Friday.
The spokesperson identified the suspect as a man in his twenties surnamed Meng.
According to the spokesperson, on Thursday afternoon a security guard at the cathedral spotted three men acting suspiciously inside the church. Later Meng – one of the trio – approached a donation box with a piece of metal in his hand while the other two men acted as look-outs. The security guard immediately caught hold of Meng. However, the other two suspects managed to flee the scene.
Staff of the cathedral then reported the case to the police. According to the spokesperson, Meng’s strip of metal, which had double-sided tape attached, was found to have a 20-pataca banknote and two 10-patacas banknotes from the donation box attached to it. The spokesperson noted that there were about 1,400 patacas cash in the box at that time.
Meng was arrested by PSP officers on Thursday, and was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further investigation, facing an aggravated theft charge.
(Photo by Carlos Dias)
