Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday commended 10 Taipei Police Department officers who helped solve the theft of more than NT$83 million (US$2.59 million) from First Commercial Bank ATMs, saying that young officers are important with crimes involving technology on the rise.
A task force of 10 officers established to investigate the case received a reward of NT$300,000 from Ko yesterday at a Taipei City Government policy meeting.
Officer Sung Chun-liang (宋俊良), who was off duty on Sunday when he saw one of the suspects — Latvian Andrejs Peregudovs — at a restaurant in Yilan’s Dongau (東澳) area and tipped off the local police, received an additional NT$20,000.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Ko praised Sung for going beyond the call of duty and playing a crucial role in solving the case.
“He stayed vigilant and sharp even when he was on a trip with his wife and children,” Ko said. “He could have said it was his day off and done nothing.”
The mayor underlined the role of young officers in criminal cases involving new technologies, saying that their older counterparts might have to rely on them to solve crimes sometimes.
The international fraud ring that hacked into First Commercial Bank’s ATMs had committed crimes in several countries before “hitting a snag” in Taipei, indicating that the city’s capacity to tackle intricate crimes has improved, Ko said.
He also lauded the city’s network of surveillance cameras that helped identify other key suspects in the heist, adding that he had instructed Taipei Police Department Commissioner Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光) to confer with information technology colleges at several universities to devise ways to boost the efficiency of the city’s network.
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