Crime | Two get lucky in retrieval of lost phones

The Public Security Police Force (PSP) has retrieved and returned two lost phones to their owners.
Last Friday, at 1:45 a.m., a woman reported her lost phone to the Public Security Police Force. She told the police that she left her cell phone in a taxi she had taken earlier from Rua de Malaca to a hotel in Cotai. The victim was a tourist from mainland China.
She tried calling her own number afterwards but found that while the phone was on, the call was not answered. She then started to suspect that the phone was picked up by somebody. Therefore, she decided to report the case to the police.
The police managed to get in touch with the taxi driver concerned, who mentioned that after alighting the victim, a group of four, two males and two females, got into the taxi right away and asked to go to Rua do Regedor.
The taxi driver stressed that he did not see the reportedly lost cell phone in his car.
The police later got in touch with the security team of the concerned hotel in Cotai. The security guards escorted the police to review the surveillance camera footage, in search of the probable suspects.
Around 11.30 a.m. on the same day, the security department reported the sighting of two people who were believed to be the suspects in the case to the police.
The security guards invited the two people to the security office to await for the police investigation. Upon arrival, police officers conducted an inquiry on the two people. One of the suspects, a man surnamed Dai from mainland China, confessed that he had obtained the cell phone during the taxi ride. Dai is around 30 years old. The other person is a female who told the police that she is Dai’s spouse.
Dai confessed that he had spotted the cell phone in the seat of the taxi and decided to keep it as his own. He was then transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office on the same day.
The victim, who was able to retrieve the phone, said the device was worth 5,300 patacas.
In another case, a Mongolian man was arrested for stealing two cell phones.
At 5:45 p.m. on Sunday, PSP officers were conducting regular patrols in the Cotai District when they intercepted the Mongolian man, reported by the police to be named Enkhee, in whose bag the officers found four cell phones.
The Mongolian man said that two cell phones belonged to him, while the other two were “picked up” in Cotai. He failed to explain to the officers why he did not pass the phone on to competent departments, such as the police or the security departments of any Cotai resorts.
At this very moment, one of the two phones rang, and an officer answered the call, which was found to be made by the owner. The owner was instructed to show up at the spot to assist with the case.
The owner realized that the phone had disappeared while shopping. However, the exact location where the phone disappeared was unknown. The owner said the phone was worth 7,000 patacas.
The Mongolian man then confessed to the crime, before being referred to the Public Prosecutions Office yesterday.
The suspects in both cases were charged with Article 200 of the Criminal Code.
Also, a casino croupier has been caught stealing chips from the Cotai casino in which she worked. The suspect is surnamed Wong and is 56 years old. She is a Macau resident and has worked in the casino for five years.
Her case was unearthed at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Her colleagues at the surveillance department saw her hiding a chip, which was worth HKD10,000, in her palm. The department reported the case to the Judiciary Police (PJ), who later arrested her.
It turned out that this was not her first time conducting the act. Before this time in which she got arrested, she had carried out four similar acts. In each act, she stole a chip worth HKD10,000.
In her confession to the police, she said she committed the theft because of her gambling habit or addiction. She has stolen HKD50,000 worth of chips in total. AL