Authorities arrest man in theft of over 100 boxes of Polo shirts

Agents of the Attorney General’s Investigation Unit arrested over the weekend a man who, together with others, allegedly stole over 100 boxes of Polo shirts from the L&T International warehouse compound in Lower Base in May.

De Zhu Sun, 30, was arrested for allegedly receiving stolen property. He was taken to the Superior Court yesterday for a bail hearing.

Associate Judge David A. Wiseman allowed Sun to post a $2,500 cash bail and $22,500 in unsecured bond.

The arraignment was set for Jan. 12 at 9am.

Investigation is still ongoing with respect to the other suspects, Saipan Tribune learned.

AGIU investigator Erwin T. Flores stated in his report that on May 25, 2008, the Department of Public Safety received a complaint about the theft of numerous boxes of Polo shirts from the second floor of a warehouse in the L&T International compound.

Flores said that, according to the information, a blue van with license plate AGC 583 was seen leaving the compound on the day of the burglary.

Flores said that on Dec. 5, 2008, acting on information from a “confidential source,” police officers arrested Sun and three other persons who had just delivered boxes of Polo shirts at the Rainbow Auto Shop in Chalan Laolao.

Police questioned the four about the shirts then released them for further investigation.

DPS impounded 94 boxes of Polo shirts. Sun claimed he had a receipt for the shirts and that he was the items’ legitimate owner.

Flores said an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who assisted in the investigation told him that the boxes seized by DPS were taken to a private warehouse in As Lito. The warehouse is under the control of the police’s “confidential source.”

Flores said he, the FBI agent, and another AGIU investigator took an employee of L&T to the As Lito warehouse to check the shirts.

Flores said the L&T employee identified the boxes as the items that were stolen from the L&T warehouse.

After the positive identification, the investigator said they seized the 94 boxes of Polo shirts and transferred them to a secured area at the CTSI Terminal in Lower Base.

Flores said that when he interviewed Sun, the suspect showed four receipts for the Polo shirts.

Flores said an L&T accountant, however, confirmed that the four receipts were fraudulent because they don’t have an authorized signature and are of different forms.

The accountant said the company would not allow such a large sale to occur since that would be a breach of the contract with Polo Ralph Lauren to sell that many pieces to another buyer.

Flores said that during a second interview with Sun on Dec. 22, the suspect admitted he was aware that the shirts were stolen.

Sun pointed to a former employee of Trans Asia Garment Manufacturing as the one who stole the boxes of shirts using a blue van.

Sun also showed to Flores at his residence 50 boxes that appeared to be identical to the 94 boxes that were recovered from the warehouse in As Lito.

Sun told the investigator that the boxes contained the same Polo shirts worth $50,000.

AGIU agents searched Sun’s residence last Friday and seized the boxes of shirts.