A man who was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of robbing a bank in Kaohsiung comes from a wealthy family, according to police officers investigating the case.
An ad hoc police team formed to probe the case said that the man, surnamed Tsai, is the son of a rich co-owner of a piston factory in the city’s Lujhu District (路竹).
The young man had led a lavish lifestyle before his trading company, which sold components for dune buggies, went bankrupt, forcing him to pawn more than 40 pieces of jewelry to pay debts, police said.
Police tracked him down at the headquarters of his closed company in Lujhu on Sunday, and arrested him in connection with the robbery at the Lujhu branch of Chang Hwa Bank in Kaohsiung on Friday.
They also retrieved NT$330,000 of the NT$700,000 they suspect Tsai of stealing and the fake gun they believe he used to rob the bank.
The rest was spent at a restaurant in Tainan and on expensive gifts for his girlfriend, police said.
On Friday at noon, Tsai allegedly entered the Lujhu branch of Chang Hwa Bank, pointed a gun at a clerk, ordered him to fill a bag with money, then drove away on a motorbike without a number plate.
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