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Theft charge possible over airport 'find'

By Chen Hong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-12 09:50

SHENZHEN: A cleaner could receive a life sentence after she took home an apparently abandoned box containing 3 million yuan ($439,000) of gold jewelry.

Liang Li, aged 40, told police that she found the 14 kg box near a dustbin in the departure hall of Shenzhen airport on Dec 9 last year.

But police want to charge Liang with theft, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, and have handed the case to prosecutors, her lawyer said.

"The public prosecutor at Bao'an District People's Procuratorate is inclined to charge Liang with theft but needs more evidence so the public security department is re-investigating the case," Si Xianli, of Guangdong Kingdom Law Firm, said.

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Liang told police that two women were sitting near the box when she first saw it about 8:30 am.

When the women left, Liang assumed the box had been abandoned and put it in her dustcart. She said she did not open the box and took it to a toilet for the disabled where she told two colleagues that there might be a battery jar inside.

Later, the two colleagues opened the box and found gold jewelry inside. The women each took some jewelry for themselves and then returned the package to Liang.

One woman told Liang there might be gold jewelry inside the box, but the 40-year-old told police that at that point she did not believe anyone would leave behind such valuable items.

Liang took the box home when she finished her shift and police knocked on her front door later that night after receiving a report from a man from a jewelry company.

The man said he accidentally left the box when he went to discuss a separate issue with airport staff and when he returned 10 minutes later it was gone, he said.

Liang gave the box to police and officers also retrieved the jewelry taken by the two colleagues.

"It's not appropriate to charge Liang with theft because she neither secretly stole nor had a motive to illegally possess the box," Si said.

"The venue, location, and its storage would assure any ordinary person that it's been abandoned or forgotten."

Li Jianyong, another lawyer, said Liang's motive would determine whether she committed theft.

"She picked up the box near a dustbin, it's hard to decide on her motive."