Religious goods shop employee steals and sells NT$75M worth of memorabilia

Religious goods shop employee steals and sells NT$75M worth of memorabilia

2026-03-25

It’s not unheard of for employees of a store to steal from the stocks and sell them for illicit gains. But in the following instance, the stolen goods aren’t luxury bags or jewelry, but religious ritual paraphernalia and deity statuettes. Two longtime employees at a folk religion memorabilia store in Kaohsiung were found to have stolen from their employer while processing outbound shipments when, in June last year, a customer notified the owner that he saw the store’s goods being sold online. Altogether, they stole nearly 5,000 items worth NT$75 million over the years. One of the suspects is even a Taoist priest himself.

Inside the storage room are racks fully stocked with figurines of deities in folk religion. It looks no different than any other warehouse, except everything here was stolen.

The thief being arrested is a 47-year-old woman surnamed Hou. She’s a warehouse manager at a religious memorabilia shop in Fengshan, Kaohsiung. With a truck driver, they’ve conspired stealing from the warehouse during shipments, and then listing the stolen items online for illicit gains.

Lin Chun-hung
Fengshan Precinct, Kaohsiung City Police
The two persons involved held the keys to their employer’s warehouse. They stole from outbound shipments of deity figurines, and before selling them, the stamp at the base would be sanded down and covered up with a sticker. We’ve seized a total of 1,034 deity figurines, 3,107 assorted censers, 253 candle holders and 593 units of other memorabilia.

Owner
Religious goods store
Honestly, I’m devastated. After all, they’ve been with the company for so long, at least 10 to 20 years.

The store that got stolen by its own employees is located on Sanmin Road in Fengshan and well-known locally. The owner said that in June last year, a customer told the store that they’ve seen listings of their goods online. That was when the long-running theft was discovered and reported to the police. The instigators were identified as longtime employees of the shop. More ironically, the truck driver involved in the scheme was a Taoist priest himself.

Owner
Religious goods store
The other party is actually a Taoist priest, in other words, a religious worker. So when we found out that he was involved, we were shocked. It’s like his identity doesn’t align with his character. The impression he makes on others is someone with a strong conviction for justice, and someone who makes a case for good morals.

Customer
Religious goods store
Business is great at the store. When I was a frequent customer, I’d go fetch what I want from upstairs myself, then come down to pay. Not to mention that they were employees. They could just get any bag and grab a figurine. It’s really not surprising.

In total, nearly 5,000 units of goods were stolen from the shop. But the suspects had stored them in several places, which took the police more than seven months to round them all up for seizure. The suspects are now being prosecuted for occupational embezzlement and theft.

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#legal #theft #crime #rituals #folkreligion