Police detained a man surnamed Lin (林) yesterday on suspicion of stealing Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen’s (陳雄文) official vehicle.
At about 6pm, police cornered Lin, 50, at the Sansia Interchange (三峽) on Freeway No. 3 in New Taipei City — just eight hours after the crime was reported — by tracking down the car’s location through sensors from the electronic toll collection (ETC) system.
At press time, the suspect was being questioned at the Taipei City Police Department’s Datong Precinct (大同).
According to police accounts, Lin entered the Ministry of Labor’s parking lot in the third level of the building’s basement at about 9:10am by walking along the driveway ramp.
Lin allegedly gained access to the car easily because the doors were left unlocked, and the car keys were in a storage compartment inside the vehicle.
CCTV footage from the ministry shows a man believed to be Lin driving out of the parking lot shortly afterward, damaging the entrance gate as he rammed through it.
Lin then allegedly drove south to the Longtan Interchange (龍潭) of Freeway No. 3 in Taoyuan, before heading north again toward Sansia, according to information retrieved from ETC sensors.
The theft was reported by Chen’s driver at about 10am, after he found the car missing as he was preparing to drive Chen to a meeting.
After he was arrested, Lin reportedly told police that “a voice instructed me to steal [the car].”
Deputy Minister of Labor Chen I-min (陳益民) said that the ministry shares its parking lot with other residents in the building, as well as users of a swimming facility.
The vehicle, a black Toyota Camry, gained notoriety in July last year after former minister of labor Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) was spotted visiting his female secretary late at night using the same car.
Additional reporting by Chen En-hui
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