A man was recently busted by police for allegedly breaking into the home of a resident in Pingshan District, stealing a spare key to the resident’s car and illegally using the car for several times when the car owner was at home, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
The car owner, surnamed Huang, could not find his car, which he had parked in the garage at the housing estate he lives in, Thursday and he called the police. When checking footage caught by surveillance cameras, Huang and the police found that someone else had driven off in his car while he was at home.
According to the footage, it was not the first time that the car had been used while Huang, the unsuspecting owner, was at home. Since June 23, Huang’s car had entered and exited the housing estate many times and neither Huang nor his family members were the drivers.
The police staked out at the garage and eventually caught the suspect, identified as Yang, after a three-hour wait.
Yang later admitted that he had stolen the spare key to Huang’s car from his home. The suspect said he found the door to the Huang’s home wide open as he was walking past on June 20, so he slipped into Huang’s apartment and hid at the study until Huang left for work.
Inside the master bedroom, Yang stole two sums of cash, 1,000 yuan (US$150.77) and HK$2,000 (US$255). When he attempted to leave the apartment, Yang found the door was locked, so he searched for spare keys in the living room.
The suspect found a key ring containing a spare key to the door and a spare key to Huang’s car, which he took. Yang’s first attempt at finding Huang’s car failed. Three days later, he returned to the garage to try again and found it.
Yang drove the car brazenly out of the housing estate and went to a restaurant to have night snack before driving back in that night.
Yang told the police that he was encountering some problems at work and driving an Audi car made him happy. Since then, Yang started to secretly use Huang’s car when the car owner was home.
To make sure Huang was at home, the suspect would go to Huang’s apartment to see if his shoes were placed in front of the door every time Yang wanted to use the car.
Yang’s secret outings were uncovered when he parked Huang’s car at a different lot than the owner had parked it before, which led to Huang’s report to the police.
The suspect has been detained by Pingshan police.