Hunger drives man to jail

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhuanet) — A jobless Taiwanese national stole a box of cotton swabs to get arrested again and have free lunch in jail.

Tsou Hao-lan from Taipei first stole a pair of shoes Sunday. He was detained and released, according to local media. But, because he was unable to forget the police department boxed lunches, the man then resorted to stealing again the next day just to get back inside and be fed for free.

‘If someone’s not doing well and comes in around meal time, we’ll definitely prepare food,’ said an officer, surnamed Wang, at the Hsinyi District police station, which handled the case but again released the suspect, Tsou Hao-lan.

In another case recently, a man who had been unemployed for four months stole a motor scooter and drove directly to the police station so that he could be easily arrested.