Police solve E-Mart heist
October 30, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WITHIN two minutes, three masked men robbed gold jewelry worth about one million yuan (US$149,586) from the E-Mart supermarket on Lianhua Road. But this robbery case was successfully solved only six days after it happened.
On the afternoon of September 19, three suspects were escorted to Shanghai and the police recently revealed some details about the case.
The security video recorded the process of the robbery: on the night of September 8, at 8:07pm, when there were few customers on the ground floor of E-Mart supermarket, three masked robbers with uniforms and hats entered the supermarket by the back door and rushed to the counter containing gold jewelry.
Their jobs were clearly divided - one of them broke the glass and took as many gold products as he could; another threatened the assistant with a gun-like object; the third threw a plastic bottle at other customers which fell to the floor and produced a lot of smoke. After one minute and 50 seconds, they escaped through the small forest outside the supermarket.
As soon as the police received a report about the incident, a large effort to catch the criminals began.
Through investigation of the scene and security footage the police soon confirmed some features of the criminals, traffic police set up checkpoints on all surrounding roads and police also searched hotels in the district. A widespread investigation took place.
Police later learnt from the criminal suspects that they made the whole plan and preparations in Chongqing so that they wouldn't leave any obvious clue in Minhang. However, the quick and large-scale reaction of the Shanghai police shocked the criminals, which proved to be very important in the following action.
Vital clue: mask holds key
After the robbery, the three suspects chose not to leave Shanghai immediately because they feared the police would set up checkpoints. They hid in a green area for one night and escaped the next day to Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province by bicycle. They then left by train.
At that point, the investigation seemed to remain stagnant, but the police were never discouraged. They put their attention back to the scene of the crime.
On a mask that the criminals threw away at the scene, the police found some minute physical evidence, which later became the key to the entire case.
During the investigation, Shanghai police learned that the evidence they found on the mask was the same as evidence found after another robbery in Guizhou Province, and it became a breakthrough point.
The police then spoke to the victim of that robbery, and according to her recollection, the criminal asked her: "How much is your 'banbanfei' every month?"
"Banbanfei" means one kind of irregular rent income. It's the dialect of the Qijiang area of Chongqing City. With this clue, the investigation direction suddenly became pretty clear. On September 14, the police located the first suspect surnamed Zhang in Qijiang area. While the police were planning the arrest, they spoke to Zhang by phone to persuade him to surrender.
After four hours of talks, Zhang decided to surrender. According to the clues he offered, the police caught the second criminal in Yuzhong District of Chongqing with some stolen goods. On September 15, the last criminal was caught in Zunyi City of Guizhou Province.
According to information from the current inquest, one of the criminals used to work in Shanghai and often went shopping in the E-Mart. So when they needed some money, they chose this particular supermarket as their target.
On the afternoon of September 19, three suspects were escorted to Shanghai and the police recently revealed some details about the case.
The security video recorded the process of the robbery: on the night of September 8, at 8:07pm, when there were few customers on the ground floor of E-Mart supermarket, three masked robbers with uniforms and hats entered the supermarket by the back door and rushed to the counter containing gold jewelry.
Their jobs were clearly divided - one of them broke the glass and took as many gold products as he could; another threatened the assistant with a gun-like object; the third threw a plastic bottle at other customers which fell to the floor and produced a lot of smoke. After one minute and 50 seconds, they escaped through the small forest outside the supermarket.
As soon as the police received a report about the incident, a large effort to catch the criminals began.
Through investigation of the scene and security footage the police soon confirmed some features of the criminals, traffic police set up checkpoints on all surrounding roads and police also searched hotels in the district. A widespread investigation took place.
Police later learnt from the criminal suspects that they made the whole plan and preparations in Chongqing so that they wouldn't leave any obvious clue in Minhang. However, the quick and large-scale reaction of the Shanghai police shocked the criminals, which proved to be very important in the following action.
Vital clue: mask holds key
After the robbery, the three suspects chose not to leave Shanghai immediately because they feared the police would set up checkpoints. They hid in a green area for one night and escaped the next day to Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province by bicycle. They then left by train.
At that point, the investigation seemed to remain stagnant, but the police were never discouraged. They put their attention back to the scene of the crime.
On a mask that the criminals threw away at the scene, the police found some minute physical evidence, which later became the key to the entire case.
During the investigation, Shanghai police learned that the evidence they found on the mask was the same as evidence found after another robbery in Guizhou Province, and it became a breakthrough point.
The police then spoke to the victim of that robbery, and according to her recollection, the criminal asked her: "How much is your 'banbanfei' every month?"
"Banbanfei" means one kind of irregular rent income. It's the dialect of the Qijiang area of Chongqing City. With this clue, the investigation direction suddenly became pretty clear. On September 14, the police located the first suspect surnamed Zhang in Qijiang area. While the police were planning the arrest, they spoke to Zhang by phone to persuade him to surrender.
After four hours of talks, Zhang decided to surrender. According to the clues he offered, the police caught the second criminal in Yuzhong District of Chongqing with some stolen goods. On September 15, the last criminal was caught in Zunyi City of Guizhou Province.
According to information from the current inquest, one of the criminals used to work in Shanghai and often went shopping in the E-Mart. So when they needed some money, they chose this particular supermarket as their target.
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