CRIME | Alleged thief caught after taking ‘selfies’

Yesterday’s police press conference

A domestic helper, who was illegally residing in the territory, was caught in a strange case involving theft and false statements.
According to information released yesterday by the Public Security Police Force (PSP), events started to unfold when the victim, a 21-year-old professional model from mainland China, asked a friend if she could stay in his house in Macau for a few days.
The house owner accepted her request and asked a domestic helper from Vietnam, who was working for him part- time, to help with the necessary arrangement for the stay.
All seemed to be running smoothly until, on January 12, the model returned to the house after a few days of staying in a local hotel. Upon arriving, she could not find most of the belongings she had left in the house, namely a smartphone, a tablet and a sum of cash. In total, she claims to have lost around MOP127,000.
Since there were no other suspects, she voiced her suspicions to the domestic helper, who promptly denied all the accusations.
After 12 days of doubts over what could have happened to the possessions, the answer came via iCloud, an online platform that allows users to store personal files on the web.
The victim had an active account that was set up to immediately upload to the iCloud account all photos taken with her mobile devices, and it was with surprise that she saw some new uploads arriving in her account showing “selfie” pictures of the domestic helper.
After being taken to a police station where she continued to deny the theft, the 40-year-old Vietnamese national then attempted to provide fake identification to the police officers.
The police then discovered the domestic helper to be residing illegally in Macau with an expired visa. Moreover, she had failed to present herself regularly to the immigration police regarding a previous case of theft in which she was involved, and for which she was awaiting trial.
She was then accused of both aggravated theft and providing false declarations to the police and was sent to the Public Prosecutors Office for further investigation. Although she admitted to providing false declarations regarding her identity to the police, she continues to deny the theft.