Taichung police yesterday announced that they had caught a suspect within an hour of responding to a bank heist, but shortly afterward admitted to arresting the wrong man. Another suspect has since been arrested.
A middle-aged man wearing a red baseball cap and a dark jacket entered Yuanta Commercial Bank’s (元大銀行) branch in Taichung’s Salu District (沙鹿) at about 12:40pm yesterday, eyewitnesses said.
The man, who was wearing a mask and holding a large kitchen knife, shouted that he was robbing the bank as he leaped over the counter and threatened two bank clerks, the witnesses said.
Photo: CNA
Surveillance camera footage showed the suspect riding a bicycle to the bank and fleeing on the same bicycle.
He made off with an estimated NT$200,000, police said.
Chen Sheng-wei (陳聖偉), the captain of the Criminal Investigation Division at Taichung’s Chingshuei District Police Precinct, said that police apprehended a suspect, who was found in an alley about 500m from the bank within an hour of the robbery.
Police received tip-offs from residents about where the suspect went, Chen said, adding: “Finally a man was caught, whom we believe to be the suspect, since he matches the suspect shown riding the bicycle.”
Media footage showed a man wearing a red baseball cap being led by police officers and pushed into a cruiser.
However, a short time later, police said that they had made a mistake, and that the arrested man was not the bank robber.
Upon closer examination, the man did not have the same physical features as the robber and did not have NT$200,000 on him, Chen said, adding that police were confused because he had been wearing a red baseball cap.
Taichung police released the man in the afternoon.
He reportedly wants to sue the bank, because the security guard employed there allegedly identified to him as the suspect.
Police later last night said they had arrested a 44-year-old suspect surnamed Tsai (蔡) at his residence at 8:30pm, and found NT$185,000 with him.
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