A debt dispute between a restaurant owner and a criminal ring might be behind a bizarre cockroach attack at the Taipei eatery on Monday night while it was hosting a police gathering, Taipei Police Commissioner Chen Jia-chang (陳嘉昌) said yesterday.
Preliminary findings of a police investigation into the case at the G House Taipei suggest that the unusual incident might have been directed at the restaurant’s owner, who allegedly owes money to the Bamboo Union, Chen said.
The suspects were Bamboo Union members and there was no evidence indicating that the cockroaches were targeted at the police officers at the restaurant, he said.
Photo: CNA
He pledged to quickly arrest those involved and present details of the case.
Chen condemned the behavior and called it an act of violence, similar to attacking people with excrement or paint.
Those convicted would be dealt with in accordance with law, he said.
Photo courtesy of Taipei City Councilor Wang Hsin-yi
Zhongshan Deputy Chief Yu Yung-lien (余永廉) said that at 7:24pm on Monday, two men in black entered the restaurant and tossed what was estimated to be more than 1,000 small roaches — a type fed to fish — into the air near a counter on the second floor.
Additional police officers arrived three minutes after receiving a report, by which time the two men had fled on a scooter, Yu said.
Footage from surveillance cameras allowed police to identify five suspects, four men and a woman, he said.
Two of them dumped the roaches in the restaurant, two were lookouts and one was a driver, he said.
They left in different directions and vehicles to evade possible pursuers, but they would be caught, Yu said.
A police task force said that the incident was unlikely to be related to Chen’s presence or the police gathering, which was attended by more than 700 people, because Chen arrived after the roaches had been released.
The incident might be over unsettled debts with the gang, it said, adding that police would track down the person who ordered the attack and any others involved.
TRICKED INTO MOVING: Local governments in China do not offer any help, and Taiwanese there must compete with Chinese in an unfamiliar setting, a researcher said Beijing’s incentives for Taiwanese businesspeople to invest in China are only intended to lure them across the Taiwan Strait, after which they receive no real support, an expert said on Sunday. Over the past few years, Beijing has been offering a number of incentives that “benefit Taiwanese in name, while benefiting China in reality,” a cross-strait affairs expert said on condition of anonymity. Strategies such as the “31 incentives” are intended to lure Taiwanese talent, capital and technology to help address China’s economic issues while also furthering its “united front” efforts, they said. Local governments in China do not offer much practical
PUBLIC POLL: More than half believe Chinese drills would make Taiwanese less willing to unify with China, while 36 percent said an invasion was highly unlikely Half of Taiwanese support independence, according to the results of a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, which also found that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) support rating fell by 7 percentage points. Fifty percent of respondents supported independence, 25.7 percent supported maintaining the “status quo” and 11.8 percent supported unification, while 12.1 percent had no opinion, did not know or refused to answer, the foundation said. Support for independence is the new mainstream opinion, regardless of which party is in power, foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said. Insinuations that Taiwan wants to maintain the “status quo” are a fabrication that
Malaysian pop singer Eison Chai (艾成) was found dead yesterday after apparently falling from the Luzhou MRT station building in New Taipei City, local police said. The 40-year-old entertainer fell from the building at around 10 a.m., and was found dead on the spot near the Luzhou MRT station's Exit 3. No other details were immediately available, and an investigation has been launched into the incident, the Luzhou Police Precinct of the New Taipei City Police Department said in a statement. Eison released his first album " Mr. I" in 2004. He rose to fame after winning season two of
HOMEBOUND: Instead of ‘one person per residence,’ travelers can stay at their home for the four days of self-disease prevention under the ‘one person per room’ rule The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced an easing of its “3+4” — three days of quarantine and four days of “self-disease prevention” — policy that would allow inbound travelers, from Sept. 1, to spend the last four days at their home under the “one person per room” principle. At present, travelers can stay at a quarantine hotel or at home under the principle of “one person per residence” for the four days of self-disease prevention. “In principle, the room for the ‘one person per room’ should be equipped with an independent bathroom,” said Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor
RSS