Burglar in Shandong changed face for each theft

[NeverSayDie]

Burglar in Shandong changed face for each theft
Staff Reporter 2013-07-13 09:56

The man made his own masks for the burglaries. (Internet photo)

An unemployed young man has made masks out of pigskin to alter his appearance and used them to steal cables worth a total of 40,000 yuan (US$6,500) from a cyber cafe in Jiaozhou in eastern China's Shandong province over the past year, according to local Qingdao Evening News.

The 25-year-old man, surnamed Lang, found the cyber cafe did not have any security facilities on its second floor and above. He surmised that the store had plenty of cables so he scouted the area and identified their location.

In order to disguise his appearance, he looked up the information on the internet and spent 500 yuan (US$80) on two lifelike face masks. He then bought a piece of pigskin with which he made three more masks for himself. Although his craft was somewhat crude, the faces were still able to fool people at night. Lang also used cosmetics to darken the skin tone of his masks.

In July last year, Lang put on one of the masks and walked five kilometers from his house to the cyber cafe taking with him a bamboo ladder, two cable cutters, a flashlight and some bags. He hid his tools near the cafe after his first theft so that he could return and steal from the store again more easily.

Lang made almost 1,000 yuan (US$162) from his first heist and returned to the same store more than 20 times. He varied his masks in order to confuse police watching surveillance footage. His modus operandi was to cut the store's electricity before he took off his mask and would clear the scene after each visit.

Lang spent his ill-gotten gains on new smartphones. When he lost interest in his latest gadget, he would put his mask on again and steal more cables, having used his smartphones to again more tips on being a more effective burglar from the internet.

The man was finally caught while casing a new location in another part of the city. He was stopped by police officers patrolling the neighborhood who were surprised to find him carrying two brand new high-end smartphones. The officers found he had a criminal record for burglary and Lang could not give them a satisfactory explanation for why he had the smartphones. Lang was taken to the local police station where he admitted his thefts. Police also found five masks at his rented house.