Crime | Man organizes theft of ex-girlfriend’s house

A PJ spokesperson pictured during yesterday’s press conference

A group of three local residents, all aged in their mid-20s performed a burglary upon a residence in Macau. The group was led by the ex-boyfriend of one of the victims of the burglary, who allegedly committed the crime in vengeance, a Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson said yesterday during a press conference.

The 28-year-old suspect, who was said to be the leader of the group, was detained together with a second person, aged 22, closing a probe that began on July 22, when the victims initially reported the case to the PJ.

At that time, the two victims, both non-resident workers who were the only residents of the apartment, reported they had been burgled while at work, reporting the loss of HKD17,000 in cash and a gold necklace worth HKD2,500.

The two were living in an apartment building located on Rua da Praia do Manduco in the Barra area.

During the investigations, the PJ identified three suspects and managed to detain one of them on August 2. After that, and after notifying the other two at their address, the last two members of the group presented voluntarily to the PJ the next day.
While questioning them, the police learned that one of them was a former boyfriend of one of the victims, which was why he was knowledgeable about the house environment, victims’ schedules and habits. He also admitted to knowing that they had the habit of keeping cash in the house in a particular location.

To the PJ he further said that the gold necklace had been immediately pawned in a shop for HKD500, cash that together with the other HKD17,000 was taken by the trio and spent on entertainment on the mainland.

All the members of the group have already been presented to the Public Prosecutions Office where they have been accused of aggravated theft.

In a separate case also reported by the same police force, a security staff member from a private building located on Rua de Francisco Xavier Pereira in Central district, a man over 50 years old, was found dead, in a case that the PJ says points to suicide.

Two co-workers of the man who was performing his duties on the night shift alerted the case to the police after they found the man hanged in the electricity meter room of the building on the morning of August 4.

One of these co-workers told the PJ that around 6.30 a.m. she had passed in front of the building while performing other duties and had not seen the man at his usual post, but did not find this strange, as it is common for the security staff to walk around the building performing checks and other tasks. However, at around 9.40 a.m., while she was trying to make a usual record of the electricity metering, she said she could not find the keys that grant access to the room and called another colleague to ask the whereabouts of the keys.

Upon entering, they found their co-worker’s body inside. Renato Marques

Rosário considering legal action over crypto scam

Frederico dos Santos Rosário says he has already reported the cryptocurrency scam to both Hong Kong and Macau police authorities and is looking into “initiating civil proceedings in Hong Kong against Dennis Lau.” Rosário and his mother, Rita dos Santos, are embroiled in an alleged cryptocurrency scam that has affected more than 70 local residents and potentially lost more than HKD13 million. Rosário and Santos both claim to be victims, but so does their Hong Kong partner Dennis Lau. The Macau residents invested a combined HKD20.1 million in the cryptocurrency business after a series of seminars in late 2017 were held at the Macau Civil Servants Association. The participants have only managed to recover HKD6.3 million to date. Though cryptocurrency businesses are legal in the private sector, on previous occasions the Monetary Authority of Macau has said that it does not “approve” of them in general and wants to “curb their occurrence.”