Suspect Identifies Crime Scene
"Have seen people stealing chickens, cattle, and women's underwear, but these two grown men actually stole men's clothes." Yesterday, an investigator from the Nan'an District Public Security Bureau told *Chongqing Morning Post* that recently they solved a strange theft case. Male tenants of a shared apartment on South Ring Road always had their clothes stolen - coats and trousers hung out to dry in the hallway would go missing. Even more unsettling for them was when even their underwear disappeared.
Could there be a pervert lurking in the shared apartment? The police intervened and quickly uncovered the mysterious disappearance of the men's clothes, with a truth that made people chuckle.
Men's Underwear Stolen Multiple Times
"My clothes have been stolen again." One early morning while it was still dim, a coarse voice echoed in the hallway of a shared apartment on South Ring Road in Nan'an District. This was already the fifth time Mr. Wang's clothes had been stolen.
Even more surprising to Mr. Wang was the disappearance of his freshly washed underwear from the previous night, leaving only an empty small hanger behind.
Recently, there has been unrest in the shared apartment. Clothes, trousers, and underwear belonging to male tenants dried in the hallway were being stolen every few days. Although the total value of the stolen goods wasn't large, the tenants living there felt insecure day and night. "This time it's clothing, next time who knows what else."
The "Pervert" Turns Out To Be Two Young Men
Though the stolen clothes weren't worth much money, this kind of life was really tormenting the tenants of the shared apartment, so they reported the incident to the Nan'an police.
The police retrieved the surveillance footage from the hallway of the shared apartment, finally revealing the true identity of the so-called "pervert" that the tenants had been talking about. In the video, in the pitch-black hallway, two shadowy figures could be seen, both around 18-19 years old, average height. They were two young men who looked around furtively, taking advantage of the absence of others to quickly snatch the clothes drying outside before fleeing the scene. It turned out that the "pervert" was just two young men.
They Stole Clothes Just To Wear New Ones
Having identified the physical characteristics of the two individuals, the police began searching for their traces in nearby internet cafes, game rooms, and other entertainment venues frequented by young people.
When the police were patrolling near an internet cafe on South Ring Road, they noticed two men online who resembled the thieves captured in the surveillance footage. One of the men was wearing a Nike sport shirt, the shoulder seams sagging down to his arms. "Where did you get the clothes?" Startled, Huang and Li, who were online at the time, stammered out the truth: "St... stolen..."
Upon investigation, it was revealed that Huang is 18 years old, and Li is 19, both from Banan District and unemployed. Due to financial constraints, they conceived the idea of stealing clothes. They sneaked into the hallway of the shared apartment on South Ring Road, taking advantage of the tenants' deep sleep, and repeatedly stole clothes. Each time, they took everything, stealing all the men's clothes and keeping those that fit or were useful. After wearing the stolen clothes for a few days, they would throw them into the toilet and then steal again.
Through further investigation, it was found that the two had no prior criminal records and were first-time offenders. Could there be another hidden reason for their theft? "If we don’t have money to buy, we’ll steal. This way, we can wear new clothes every day without having to wash them ourselves," Huang’s absurd explanation left the police officers and the tenants speechless.
More worryingly, the two young men wore expressions of indifference.
By Li Miao, *Chongqing Morning Post*