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Police nab robbers who doped Australian man

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-14 00:05

HOHHOT -- A narcotics-aided robbery case involving a foreign tourist was cracked Tuesday resulting in the arrest of three suspects in Manzhouli city of northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the local police confirmed Wednesday.

All of the property stolen from Kaiser Steven John, a 53-year-old Australian tourist has been recovered. His property was valued at 60,000 yuan (US$8,785).

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John has returned to Taiwan, where he works for a railway group company. The local police said they would try their best to contact him and return his property.

On March 14, the Australian tourist reported to the Manzhouli police he was drugged and robbed by three Chinese people. Properties stolen included a credit card, camera, electronic dictionary and cash.

He told the local police that three Chinese people struck up a conversation in English with him when he visited a trading center in Manzhouli city that day. They invited him to a nearby bar to have a beer together. He said they added narcotics to his beer, which made him lose consciousness, then robbed him.

During their investigation, the local police gained video data about the three suspects from a monitoring camera at a hotel just opposite the bar.

One month later, the local police arrested a suspect who allegedly stole 17,000 Rubbles (US$506.6) from a Russian tourist in the city. The description of the suspect matched that of one of the three suspects in the narcotics-based robbery. Later, the local police found John's electronic dictionary at the suspect's residence.