Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Parish of São Tiago Maior, in the municipality of Santa Cruz, was the victim of a robbery on the night of Monday, 7th. Surveillance cameras identified a single suspect – an ex-convict, born in São Domingos, who is at large with almost 500 contos in cash that he subtracted from the residence of parish priest António Fernandes. The authorities are on his trail, but the stolen money will hardly be recovered, if we believe the reports of people who saw him displaying wads of money in the streets .
According to Santiago Magazine, the images from the surveillance cameras show the suspicious individual, known as Lito, from Água de Gato, making the rounds around the parish and priest’s residence, still in the afternoon.
At that time, he had already met the parish priest António Fernandes (the two know each other, both are from São Domingos, and the alleged author of the theft also has a priest brother) from whom he asked for 50 escudos.
But the invasion of the parish priest’s residence took place at night, apparently at the exact moment when Father António Fernandes was meeting with his staff to prepare the next priestly ordination. It is believed that he entered through the gate, after damaging the motion sensor so as not to be discovered, arriving at the priest’s room, which had an unlocked door.
Stolen money was contributed by emigrants
There, he rummaged through everything and, luckily, found 485 contos in cash, which the parish priest of Santa Cruz had in his possession for the organization of the Emigrant Festival.
The money is the contribution of the emigrants to this annual meeting with a solemn mass that brings together hundreds of children from this municipality in the north of Santiago, promoted by the Municipality of Santa Cruz.
In addition to this amount, the individual will have taken along some Church papers and also all the personal identification documents (and not only) of the local priest.
Suspect still at large but authorities are already on his trail
Police authorities have already viewed the video footage and launched a search for the suspect, who is still at large.
Witnesses guarantee that he was holding several cash notes in the streets of Pedra Badejo, and also in São Domingos, where he probably returned yesterday morning, Tuesday.
A woman, in São Domingos, from whom a mobile phone and three thousand escudos had been stolen some time ago, saw him with a plastic bag full of banknotes and the police already know.
His capture is being prioritized by police corporations, but no red alert has yet been launched.
According to information, the suspect was recently released from prison in São Martinho for involvement in robberies, rape and other crimes and would also have recently attacked his older sister with the mouth of a bottle around her neck.
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