Four detained over theft of an armored vehicle

• By Wang Chieh and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer

• • Add TT as Preferred Source

  • 

  • 

  • 

A security guard and three others have been detained incommunicado after the guard allegedly stole an armored vehicle containing NT$14.5 million (US$448,389) in cash, Tainan police said yesterday.

The incident occurred on Thursday last week, when the guard, surnamed Kuo (郭), was conducting a routine cash pickup and replenishment run with a newly hired colleague, the Tainan Police Department’s Sixth Precinct said.

Kuo allegedly used an excuse to send the rookie guard away and drove away while he was distracted, it said.

A police station sign is pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo: CNA

He abandoned the van on Yongcheng Road in South District (南區) and allegedly stole NT$14.5 million in cash from a safe in the vehicle, police said, adding that he fled on a motorcycle he had prepared in advance.

The security company reported the theft that evening, police said.

After securing the money, Kuo enlisted three men — surnamed Liu (劉), Wang (王) and Kuo — to help him hide, the precinct said.

The group allegedly spent nearly NT$2 million of the stolen money on three used Mercedes-Benz vehicles, as well as new cellphones, before traveling to a Taichung club, it said.

The precinct formed a task force and reviewed surveillance footage to track the suspects.

Officers found the men in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) and Tainan’s East District (東區), detaining all four, it said, adding that NT$12.55 million in cash, three vehicles and phones were seized.

The suspects, who are all younger than 30, were transferred to the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of occupational embezzlement and breaches of the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), the precinct said.

The Tainan District Court granted a request to detain the four men incommunicado as police continue to search for a fifth suspect.