A woman in Ningbo, Zhejiang, allegedly stole her best friend’s nearly 20-gram gold bracelet and secretly replaced it with a counterfeit piece before selling it for cash.
According to reports by Ningbo Evening News, police from the Taoyuan Police Station in Ninghai County recently received a report from a woman identified as Li, who said she had discovered that her gold bracelet had been swapped.
Li said the bracelet had always been kept in its usual place and had not been touched for some time. However, when she recently picked it up to wear, she immediately noticed something was wrong as it felt considerably lighter.
She subsequently took the bracelet to a gold shop for testing, where she was shocked to discover that the genuine gold bracelet had been replaced with a fake item made to resemble gold but reportedly containing silver underneath.
After reviewing the circumstances, police suspected that the culprit was likely someone known to Li, as the bracelet had been kept at her home. Their investigation eventually led them to one of her close friends, identified as Wang.
Wang reportedly surrendered herself to police after learning that the swap had been discovered. During questioning, she allegedly admitted that she had been short of money and developed the idea of taking her friend’s bracelet after noticing it at Li’s home.
She reportedly took advantage of an overnight stay at Li’s house, using a counterfeit bracelet she had prepared beforehand to replace the genuine one. The stolen gold bracelet was then allegedly pawned and sold to obtain money.
Wang has since been placed under criminal coercive measures on suspicion of theft, while the case remains under investigation.
