A common thief has been captured on the run after he chanced upon a “manbag” in which was a small fortune. With cash in hand and broken glass all around, the petty thief made off on his motorbike, not stopping until he was over 1,000 km from Nanjing.
On a recent evening in Nanjing, a Mr. Chen drove to Jiangning District from Pukou District. After parking on the roadside at about 23:00, he went to a friend’s home in the neighbourhood for a discussion. At about 01:00, when Chen returned to the car again, he found that the front passenger window had been smashed and his bag containing more than ¥20,000 was missing.
Many older men in China are fond of carrying around the male equivalent of a handbag, the so called manbag. Often made of superior leather, this is the place where they stash their cigarettes and if they’re lucky, large wads of cash.
Hence motorbike rider, a Mr. Cao, knew he was very possibly onto something when he passed by Zhuangpai Lu in Nanjing and noticed the bag casually left on a parked car’s passenger front seat.
Smashing the window with a stolen window breaker, Cao took out the bag, made his discovery and then quickly fled the scene of the crime, riding his motorcycle back to his hometown thousands of kilometres away.
Keeping only the cash, Cao had discarded onto the passenger seat the empty bag and the remainder of its contents, amongst which were those obligatory cigarettes, matches and a hip flask.
Taking the relevant clues gleaned at the crime scene into account, investigating police found that Cao, hailing from another province, was suspected of committing a major crime. Subsequently, the police took to the field and successfully captured Cao.
After interrogation, Cao confessed to the crime of stealing property from Chen’s car. According to reports, Cao had come to Nanjing from elsewhere by motorcycle and made upon Chen’s car in the early hours of the same day, revealed the Yangtze Evening News.
At present, Cao has been taken into criminal detention by Jiangning police according to law, while the case is further tried.
