A 53-year-old Taiwanese man who allegedly stole a motorcycle and used it in the robbery of an Indonesian caregiver on November 18 was arrested within 30 hours of the alleged crimes in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.
The suspect surnamed Chien, who had recently been bailed out from Ciaotou District Court in a drug-trafficking case, allegedly decided to carry out a grab-and-go robbery in the streets of Alian district because he was in need of money for daily necessities and his addiction, Taiwan Times reported on Thursday.
Preliminary police investigation found that Chien first rode on his electric bike from his home in Luzhu district to a wet market in Alian district, where he stole a motorcycle on Zhongshan Road on November 16.
After finding that the vehicle was not working properly, Chien allegedly stole another heavy motorcycle the following day.
At 6:45am on November 18, Chien, riding the second stolen motorcycle, spotted an Indonesian woman riding her bicycle with a handbag in her left hand, which was said to have contained NT$7,400 (US$250), in Lane 39, Zhongshan Road, the report said.
He allegedly followed the victim, grabbed her handbag and fled along Ganghou Lane in the direction of Luzhu district.
Police from Alian Precinct had already set up a task force after the reports of the lost motorcycle, and looked for the suspect through the city’s closed-circuit television cameras, the precinct chief said.
Around 30 hours after robbing the Indonesian caregiver, Chien was tracked down and arrested in a square outside a Buddhist temple on Dazhi Road, Luzhu District, on suspicion of committing robbery and theft.