Tainan Man Arrested for Allegedly Snatching Gold Necklace from Senior, Apprehended After Fleeing

CNA, Tainan, 17th - A 65-year-old man surnamed Chen from Tainan allegedly followed an elderly person exercising alone in Xinying District last night, snatching the gold necklace from their neck. He then fled on a bicycle, moving erratically to complicate police investigation, but was tracked down and arrested this morning. Yeh Li-kai, head of the Zhongshan Road Police Station of the Tainan City Police Department's Xinying Branch, stated in a media interview that they received a report of a gold necklace snatching in an alley in Xinying District at around 7 PM yesterday. The Xinying Branch immediately formed a special task force. After reviewing surveillance footage overnight, they identified the suspect, who committed the robbery on foot and then fled by bicycle. Yeh said the task force expanded its surveillance search to track the suspect and arrested Chen at his rented residence in Xinying District this morning, recovering a gold necklace weighing about 1.5 taels. The case has been transferred to the Tainan District Prosecutors Office on charges of robbery. According to the preliminary police investigation, Chen allegedly followed the elderly victim, who was exercising alone, on foot around 7 PM yesterday. He snatched the gold necklace from the victim's neck and fled on a bicycle, constantly changing directions without a fixed route to create dead ends and increase the difficulty of the police investigation. Police noted that by expanding their review of surveillance footage, they grasped Chen's key movements and arrested him about 10 hours after the incident. Police also urge the public to be cautious about displaying valuables like gold jewelry, as recent high gold prices may attract premeditated crimes, and to enhance personal safety measures.