Compiled by SALMA FAIRUS, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
HIS obsession with stories about tomb raiding led him to lead a gang which stole 20 artefacts from a historical burial site in China, China Press reported.
By doing so, the man identified only as Yu, had turned his preoccupation with novels about tomb raiding into reality.
When he was arrested, police found him in possession of such novels.
He revealed that he painstakingly cross-referenced story details in the novels against historical records and chronicles before deciding to target the Guojiaomiao cemetery, a burial site which dates back nearly 2,800 years.
Yu conspired with a gang of tomb raiders and dug a two-metre tunnel in a tomb there one night in 2023 and stole 20 artefacts.
Last year, the gang was busted after police in Xiangyang city received a tip-off that a man was trying to sell “freshly unearthed” relics in the black market.
Officers posed as buyers and captured Yu and his accomplices red-handed.
Police have also recovered 20 bronze artefacts, nine of which were classified as Class 1 national relics.
Yu has been charged in court. If convicted, he could face life imprisonment.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
