The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a local man on Thursday for stealing multi-currency cash valued at 51,040 patacas from a car, PJ spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a regular press conference yesterday.
Lei identified the suspect as a 62-year-old construction worker surnamed Lei.
According to Lei, a middle-aged local man reported to the police on June 16 that his cash, consisting of Hong Kong dollars, yuan and patacas, worth 51,040 patacas in total had been stolen from his car. The victim told the police that he had parked the car near Rua dos Hortelãos (菜園路) in the morning and confirmed it was locked before leaving. Upon returning in the evening, he discovered that all the cash had been stolen from a black handbag on the front passenger seat. He then immediately reported the case to the police that day.
The police later identified Lei as the suspect and discovered that he had passed by the victim’s car that afternoon, sneaking inside to steal the cash in Hong Kong dollars, yuan, and patacas.
Lei, the spokesman, said that the car had probably not been locked properly.
After the theft, Lei, the construction worker, left Macau through the Barrier Gate checkpoint later that day. Lei was intercepted by police on Thursday as he was re-entering Macau through the same checkpoint. Under questioning, Lei admitted to stealing the cash and claimed that he had spent all of the stolen money.
Lei noted that the suspect had been caught for a prior car theft case in April 2025. He had also been imprisoned for theft in 2020 and was released in August 2022.
Lei has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a theft charge.
