More than ten houses were reportedly broken into in Kueilai Li, Huhsi Li and Hunan Li of Pingtung County in the last month. Residents in these areas decided to catch the perpetrators by leaving their doors open. When Wang Tsun-he, 32, Hsu Sung-lin, 32, and Yao Chih-hua, 21, attempted an alleged break-in, the waiting group of neighborhood residents cornered the unwanted guests and overpowered them, resulting in fractured arms and bruised faces.

The three suspects received cursory medical attention before being sent to the police station. Following the suspects’ repeated moans of “painful” and “never again,” they were taken into the nearby hospital for diagnosis followed by reconstructive bone surgeries.

According to police, there were several cases of burglaries during the last month with many house-hold electronic appliances, air-conditioners, aluminum tire rims of cars, air-compressors and water suction motors have been reported stolen.

A burglary victim surnamed Chen said he had found a dismembered stolen air-compressor, which had not yet been taken away by the thieves, so he decided to leave his doors open and wait for the thieves to come back while other local residents kept a lookout.

Wang and his accomplices allegedly took the bait, but when they become aware that their actions were being watched, the trio tried to drive away from the scene.

Their escape was foiled by a crowd of residents, who bashed the vehicle with bats, shattering its windows and beating passengers until the suspects were begging for mercy on the ground.

When police questioned about their bruises, the suspects said they did not know who had inflicted their injuries and refused to press charges for causing bodily harms against the local residents. The three suspected blamed the worsening economy for pushing them to the point of having to resort to thievery.

“We have been unemployed for 6 months, and we don’t have any money to buy food to eat,” one of the suspects said.

Police say all three suspects had previous criminal records of heroine usage.

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