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| Zhu Ping, the cab driver who chased the bank robber on Wednesday, poses in front of the bank on Zhangjiang Road in Pudong yesterday.(Photo/ Shanghai Daily) |
Background: Pudong bank robber on the run
Trembling at the police station, Wan, the suspect in an abortive bank robbery in the Pudong New Area on Wednesday morning, said the felony was the result of an emotional outburst caused by a broken heart. He said his main motive was to get back at a girlfriend who dumped him.
The frail, scholarly looking young man was nervous and kept drinking water during his interrogation, police said.
Wan, from Shandong Province, received his bachelor's degree from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2011. He told police he scored in the top 1,000 or so among about 800,000 participants in the 2007 national college entrance examination.
When they heard about the crime, his surprised college roommates said they had never thought he would end up like this. Wan's grades ranked him toward the middle of his university class. He was an extrovert, according to his schoolmates.
However, after graduation, things went sour - he did not find a satisfying job and his girlfriend of two years left him.
Wan tried to get her to return but she refused. He told the police he was so distraught he tried to hurt himself.
"Why did you do this?" officers asked him about the motive of the bank heist.
"I just hate!" Wan said resolutely.
"Who do you hate?" Officers asked him.
"I hate ... my girlfriend," he answered.
"What's the link (between the hate and the robbery) then?" they asked him.
"I just wanted revenge ... and I don't have money."
Wan turned to selling health products recently, but he was never very good at it, according to his classmates. He borrowed money from them.
Wan's classmates said the 23-year-old appeared calm and seemed to have some artistic talent. He sometimes would write poems though he liked to play cards.
Blind with hate and grief, Wan walked into an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China outlet on Zhangjiang Road with a knife around 11:04am and stole 100,000 yuan (US$16,144).
Wan left the bank and was chased by a guard, two bank employees and a driver who decided to join in. The driver confronted him, and Wan tossed the money aside in order to get away.
Wan clearly was not experienced and quickly became a suspect, even though he had covered his head with a beanie and surgical mask, exposing only his eyes, police said.
"During the investigation, our special team found that the suspect was not a professional. Although he prepared, he wasn't fully prepared," an officer said.
By 9:30pm, about 10 hours after the robbery, the police had found the suspect's apartment on Zhangdong Road in Pudong.
Wan was taken into custody after finding him in his bed at 12:05am yesterday. He confessed to the crime later in the day, police said.
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