Tsoying heist cash remains missing

Kaohsiung police yesterday said that they are still looking for more evidence as well as NT$3.13 million in cash from the robbery of the Land Bank of Taiwan's branch inside the navy complex in Tsoying on June 11, but that they have learned more about the circumstances behind the heist from the four alleged robbers' testimony.

"We are still looking for the pass to the military complex, the pistols which was used during the crime and the most important thing -- the money," said Hu Mu-yuan (胡木源), the chief of the Kaohsiung City Police Department's Criminal Investigation Corp.

The police said that the robbery was committed by 42-year-old Chang Hsiao-tsu (張孝慈), 26-year-old Chi Chih (齊智) and 26-year-old Kang Yu-chang (康郁昌) possibly with the cooperation of 23-year-old Chi Chung (齊忠). The two suspects surnamed Chi are brothers.

Chang was the last of the four to be arrested. He was apprehended at the parking lot of the Kaohsiung Municipal Arts Museum on Monday.

Three of the suspects are retired naval personnel who have served at the base: Chang is a retired chief petty officer with honors; Kang is also a retired petty officer who graduated from the Naval Navigation School in 1995; and Chi Chih was a sailor, who finished his compulsory military service at the base four years ago.

The three used Chi Chih's white Honda Civic for transportation and gained entrance to the base with a pass to the military complex displayed on the windshield.

They were dressed in robes used exclusively by engine-room officers and sailors. Wearing surgical masks and holding pisols, they robbed the bank on June 11. No one was injured during the robbery.

The police had discovered NT$374,500 cash when they arrested Chi Chung on Saturday. His brother Chi Chih was arrested at a hostess bar in Tsoying on Sunday. Chi Chih reportedly confessed immediately to the theft, telling officers that he owed NT$1.5 million to Chang and told them that that is the reason he agreed to the robbery when Chang proposed it.

According to Chang's story to the police, they had taken NT$2.7 million, not NT$3.13 million. Chang said that Chi Chih and Kang each kept NT$500,000. He kept NT$1.5 million because Chi Chih already owed him NT$1 million before the crime.

Chang said that he kept the remaining NT$200,000 because Chi Chih told him to donate this amount to charities. However, he claims that the total NT$1.7 million he kept was stolen on the train when he was returning to Kaohsiung from Taipei on Monday.

Chang did not mention whether Chi Chung was involved, but police are keeping him as a suspect because he had so much cash on hand. Chi Chung is the only one of the four suspects who has been released on bail.

In addition, Chang did not explain where he got the pistols but said that the pass to the military complex was not a fake one. He actually stole it from an officer's car by breaking the car's window and he threw away the three pistols, the naval robes and the pass to a garbage heap, he said.

"He seemed to be hiding something during the interrogation. That is the point which we are working on," Hu said.