An 80-year-old man in Nantou went to a fruit stand in Caotun to steal in April this year. He was discovered by the store owner. He claimed that he was hungry and had no money, and then he ate 16 bananas in front of the store. The store owner was shocked and reported it to the police. The Nantou District Court considered that the old man was old and sentenced him to 6 days of detention, which was replaced by a fine of NT$6,000.
The verdict pointed out that the case happened at the end of April this year. An 80-year-old man surnamed Wang went to the fruit stand and took a bunch of bananas without the store owner’s permission and was about to leave. He was immediately stopped by the store owner and asked the old man to pay. But Wang said “I have no money” and said he was hungry.
Then, Wang started to peel the bananas and eat them crazily. When the store owner notified the police to arrive at the scene, he had eaten the whole bunch of 16 bananas, leaving only the banana peels as evidence of theft.
After investigating based on the testimony of the store owner and the surveillance camera footage, the prosecutors and police confirmed that the old man’s behavior was theft, and he also admitted to the crime. Therefore, he applied for a summary judgment. The judge of the Nantou District Court considered that Wang was old and reduced his sentence according to Article 18, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Law. He sentenced him to 6 days of detention, which was replaced by a 6,000 yuan fine.
However, the old man’s behavior of eating 16 bananas in one breath was different from that of ordinary people. Guo Jialun, director of the Department of Geriatric Psychiatry at Caotun Nursing Home of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, reminded that patients with dementia often have symptoms such as memory confusion, time sequence confusion, abnormal emotions, and binge eating. If family members find that the behavior is very different from before, they should seek medical attention as soon as possible.
