HE was old, homeless, and hungry.
So when Tsang Wing-on, 78, ran out of money, he knew of only one place where he could get a warm bed and a hot meal - jail.
So he armed himself with a knife and threatened a woman employee of a store in Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong, urging her to call the police.
She did. And Tsang got the food and bed he longed for, but not quite in the way he had hoped.
The Standard reported that Tsang pleaded guilty to one count of criminal intimidation in a Hong Kong court on Wednesday.
But, when Kowloon City magistrate Rickie Chan Kam-cheong learnt of why Tsang committed the crime, he ordered the man to be sent to a home for the elderly instead of a jail cell.
The court heard that Tsang's problems began after the Social Welfare Department suspended his HK$3,570 ($730) monthly payout under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme.
When his savings ran out, he resorted to desperate measures.
On 31 Jan, he staged a robbery and threatened a woman at a convenience store.
When arrested, he said he committed the crime so he would be sent to prison where he could get food and a roof over his head, the Standard reported.
During sentencing, Mr Chan said that although criminal intimidation was a serious offence, he would treat Tsang's case as an exception because he had resorted to a 'foolish crime' after running into financial problems.
Tsang's clean record also proved he was a good citizen, the magistrate said.
Mr Chan added that elderly people in Hong Kong do not have to worry about lack of care as the government provides the needy with basic support if they approach the relevant authorities.
Tsang, who was sent directly to the home in Sham Shui Po after sentencing, promised not to commit such a crime again.
'I know robbery is against the law, but I was hungry,' he said.
'What else could I do?'
Tsang also need not worry about being penniless again.
A spokeswoman for the Social Welfare Department said it cut off Tsang's monthly welfare aid in January after it lost contact with him while conducting regular checks on him last year.
'But after Tsang contacted us, we resumed his welfare payments,' she said.
Charity Against Elderly Abuse of Hong Kong vice-executive director Selwyn Yu Ka-lung believes that Tsang's case highlights the lack of support services for elderly hermits.
'The (problem of) elderly hermits is like a timebomb ticking away,' he said
Source:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg
Hungry, so he tries to go to jail 
