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Man Jailed for Eating Tortoise
1999-03-20
HONG KONG - A Chinese illegal immigrant was given a year in jail for breaking into a Hong Kong home and eating an expensive pet tortoise. Judge Stephen Chow Siu-hung told Chau Chao-ping, 22, that the normal sentence for burglary was three years in prison. But the judge imposed a lesser penalty because Chau pleaded guilty and had shown no intent to steal anything valuable, the South China Morning Post reported Friday. ``It was due to hunger that he slaughtered a tortoise for food, but he left the two other tortoises in the hut intact,'' the judge said Thursday. After breaking into Li Lai-fun's home on Dec. 5, Chau found the three pet turtles. He picked the biggest one to boil and eat, then fled, leaving shell in a wash basin, the newspaper said. Chau was arrested by Hong Kong authorities the next day on charges of being in the territory illegally and sent back to China, the Post reported. No one connected Chau with the death of the $130 tortoise until he was caught two weeks later sneaking back into Hong Kong -- clinging to the bottom of a container truck -- and his fingerprints matched those from the crime scene. In addition to 12 months in jail for burglary, Chau got 15 months for staying in Hong Kong illegally, the Post said.
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