Police in Kinmen County and Taichung are searching for a thief who stole golden medallions weighing around 112g from the Tianshang Shengmu Temple (Heavenly Holy Mother Temple) on the remote island of Wuciou (烏坵), 133km north of Kinmen, police said yesterday.
Only one military ship arrived at Taichung Harbor from Wuchiou on Saturday morning and the Taichung Harbor police said yesterday they believed the thief might have traveled aboard the ship to Taichung. They dispatched officers to investigate the case in coordination with the Kinmen police.
There is only one military supply ship that travels between Taichung Harbor and the small rocky island of Wuchiou every 10 days. The journey normally takes eight to nine hours.
An elderly woman living on Wuchiou, who went to the temple at around 5am on Saturday, found that three large and more than 10 smaller medallions, which were contributed by local people and hung on the statue of Matsu, the Chinese goddess of sea, were missing and reported the incident to the police.
The burglary has enraged people living on the island, Wuchiou Township chief Chen Hsing-chiou (陳興坵) said, adding that he suspected the thief was likely a Taiwanese, rather than a Chinese fisherman, because of the recent rough seas. Both Wuchiou and Kinmen lie closer to China's southeastern province of Fujian than to Taiwan.
Besides the marine forces stationed on the island, there are only about 40 residents in Wuchiou Township, which is under the jurisdiction of the Kinmen County Government.
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