Sunday, April 12, 2009

Taiwan police arrest man for throwing banknotes on highway -

Taipei - Taiwan police on Sunday arrested a man for throwing banknotes from a taxi on the highway.

Chen Ping-teng, 43, was arrested after he tossed 1,000 Taiwan dollar (30 US dollar) bills from the window of a taxi on a highway in central Taiwan.

The taxi driver, suspecting Chen was the same man who threw money from a taxi on the highway Tuesday, causing traffic jams and triggering a police probe, drove Chen to a police station and handed him over to police.

During police questioning, Chen - who seemed to be mentally disturbed - admitted he has thrown an unknown amount of money across the island several times, including throwing 500,000 Taiwan dollars in 1,000 Taiwan dollar bill on the highway Tuesday.

Taiwan press gave wide coverage of Tuesday's incident as some drivers, seeing Chen throwing money out of the taxi, pulled over to the road side to pick up the money, posing a hazard to other cars.

Chen said he has made 4 million Taiwan dollars from selling an apartment and wanted to give away part of it because he has been possessed by ghost and cannot sleep at night.

Police found 920,000 Taiwan dollars in 1,000 Taiwan dollar bills in two dark plastic bags Chen was holding. The edge of some bills have been burnt.

Police turned Chen over for prosecution on charges of destroying national currency and disrupting traffic.

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