The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday announced it would join the investigation into a theft at the Taipei 101 mall on Wednesday.
The crime took place on Wednesday afternoon, when the wife of an optometrist, surnamed Lu (呂), and her friend, surnamed Lee (李), had finished dining at a restaurant in the mall and went to retrieve their car at the mall’s basement parking lot. Three masked thieves suddenly appeared with guns and threatened them. The thieves ordered Lu and Lee to hand over all their cash, which totaled about NT$240,000, as well as other valuables.
Lu and Lee were then blindfolded and forced into Lu’s BMW. The thieves drove the two to a mountainous area in Shenkeng Township (深坑). After dropping off each of the women separately, the men made off in the BMW with the cash.
The CIB and National Police Agency yesterday said they hoped that by joining the Taipei Police Department in investigating the case, they would soon solve it, and restore safety and security at the mall and the surrounding area.
The case follows a separate theft at the same mall last month, when a thief made off with millions of NT dollars in diamonds from a DeBeers store by pretending to be a Japanese tourist who needed help shopping for his sister’s wedding gift.
The recent crimes have led to questions of whether security is too lax at the upscale mall, despite about 30 surveillance cameras on each floor of the basement parking lot.
Although the surveillance cameras captured images of the thieves as they drove into the mall’s parking lot before they committed the crime, authorities are still having difficulty identifying the criminals, because they kept their faces covered.
Taipei 101 yesterday issued a statement promising to ensure the safety of its customers by tightening security measures at parking lot exits, doubling the number of security guards in parking lots and reassessing the number and locations of surveillance cameras.
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