TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A man was arrested on Sunday (March 12) for stealing two cartons of eggs from a woman's bicycle basket amid a national egg shortage.
The 38-year-old woman surnamed Yeh (葉) set out to buy eggs in New Taipei City's Xizhi District, but found they were sold out at four different stores before she found a fifth that still had them. They were the "last two cartons in the convenience store," according to Liberty Times.
Yeh put the eggs into her bicycle basket, but she remembered she needed something else and ran back into the convenience store, according to an account of the incident posted on the Facebook group "Xizhi Group."
However, when she came out, she discovered the cartons were missing from her basket. At 9:50 a.m., Yeh told police the eggs had been stolen from her bicycle, which had been parked outside a store on Fude 1st Road.
Although there were no surveillance cameras outside the store, police were able to access footage from nearby cameras in the area. They spotted a 61-year-old man surnamed Kuo (郭) walking in the area carrying the two cartons at the time of the incident.
A man surnamed Kuo is escorted by a police officer. (CNA photo)
After conducting a search for Kuo, police went to his residence at 1:40 p.m. When Xizhi Precinct police questioned Kuo, he confessed to the crime and handed over the two boxes with their contents "unscathed."
After officers took Kuo into the police station for more questioning, the eggs were returned to Yeh. Kuo was then transferred to the District Prosecutor's Office to be investigated for Offenses of Larceny (竊盜罪), the report said.
In her description of the incident posted after Kuo's arrest, Yeh said she tried PX Mart, Carrefour, the market, and Simple Mart, but could not find any eggs. It was not until she tried a convenience store that she found two cartons which she bought for NT$172.
Yeh said she thought it was a small matter and did not want to waste police resources, but because it was reported to the police and larceny is a publicly prosecutable offense, they investigated the case. Police reminded the public to carry valuables and personal items with them at all times to avoid theft.
