TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A convicted sex offender who local media dubbed the "taxi wolf" was arrested in Kaohsiung on Tuesday (March 3) after he sawed off his ankle bracelet, fled his residence in Hualien, and robbed a betelnut stand in Taipei.
In 1998, now 53-year-old Ou Li-yuan (歐力源) was sentenced to life in prison for the robbery and rape of a female college student in his taxi at 4:50 a.m. on April 17, 1997, reported CNA. He began his prison sentence in June of 1998, but he was granted parole on July 28, 2017, on the condition he wear an electronic ankle tag.
According to the terms of his probation, Ou was ordered to abide by a curfew, under which he was not allowed to venture out from his Hualien County home between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., reported SET News. However, at 9:55 p.m. on Monday evening (March 2), Hualien County police noticed that the ankle device was emitting an alarm.
When police arrived at Ou's residence, they found that he had sawed off his ankle bracelet and fled the premises long before their arrival. The Hualien District Prosecutor's office opened an investigation into Ou for damaging public property and revoked his parole.
Hualien police put together an emergency response team at 10:40 p.m., but because Ou did not have a mobile phone, they had difficulty tracking his movements. At 2:20 a.m. Ou threatened a worker at a betelnut stand with a knife on Huanhe North Road in Taipei City's Datong District, reported UDN.
Car that Ou was spotted driving. (Hualien County District Prosecutor's Office photo)
Ou then forced the clerk to hand over approximately NT$5,000 (US$167). After Taipei police were alerted to the crime, they checked nearby surveillance cameras and found that Ou had fled the scene in a dark green Ford and headed toward Kaohsiung.
At about 2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, Ou drove north on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway before suddenly taking an exit in Kaohsiung's Gangshan District, where he started to meander around. At 3:45 p.m., Ou drove into a gas station to urinate.
By this point, police had homed in on the location of Ou's car. After Ou drove out of the gas station and stopped at a traffic light on Yanchao Road, police yanked him out of the driver's seat and arrested him, reported Liberty Times.
Inside the vehicle, police found a knife along with NT$3,000 of the stolen cash. Ou had reportedly spent the other NT$2,000 on food and gasoline.
Officers took Ou back to the Datong Precinct of the Taipei City Police Department for questioning before transferring him to the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office. Prosecutors filed a late-night appeal with the court to keep him in custody and on Wednesday morning (March 4), the court approved the request.
