Chinese sneak thief fails to shake off police despite his mazy getaway
Suspect spent five hours walking home in bid to avoid security cameras but failed miserably
A suspected thief in eastern China who tried to evade detection by taking a circuitous route away from the scene of the crime was detained by police after an inevitably futile five-hour walk home, according to a news website report.
The unidentified man was accused of stealing two smartphones from an internet cafe in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, on the morning of March 11, Kankan News reported on Tuesday.
Footage from a surveillance camera showed him prowling around the cavernous, though mostly deserted, room seemingly on the lookout for something to steal.
After pocketing the two handsets, the suspect left the cafe and embarked on what appeared to be a convoluted journey back to his home, police were quoted as saying.
They said they assumed the man had been trying to evade detection by steering a mazy route through the city’s network of surveillance cameras.
Despite his best efforts, he was spotted multiple times by the all-seeing eyes and a team of detectives was able to piece together his route and track him down.
The report said the man took about five hours to get back to his home, though did not say how far he had walked, and was detained soon after.
Police were quoted as saying that he admitted to stealing the phones and by the time of his capture had already sold one of them for 300 yuan (US$47).
