Panty fetish: Man steals 66 women's briefs

A man, who allegedly stole 66 women's underpants from residential complexes in Jinshan, has been charged with theft, prosecutors in the suburban district said on Wednesday.

The man, surnamed Ou, was diagnosed with light mental retardation and fetishism. But that has nothing to do with his full capacity for taking criminal responsibility and standing trial, prosecutors insisted.

According to Jinshan District People's Procuratorate, one of the victims, surnamed Chen, said she had hung her briefs on the laundry rack near the southern wall of her house on the morning of December 23 last year. However, when she was about to take them down at 3pm, she found them missing. Recalling similar experiences that occurred four months earlier, she thought they might have been stolen and reported it to Jinshan police.

Two days later, when police officers were patrolling near a crossroad, they noticed a male cyclist acting suspiciously. Since the man resembled the person caught on surveillance videos near Chen's house, officers took him for questioning to the police station, where he confessed to the theft.

Ou told police he cannot help himself whenever he sees a pair of briefs; he has to nick them. He had stolen 66 briefs between 2017 and 2018, which were all hidden at his residence, the suspect added.