Author: Kelsey Cheng for Mailonline

Published: December 17, 2018 05:27 EDT | Updated: December 17, 2018 07:14 EDT

To avoid being caught, a man desperately broke and swallowed the jade necklace beads he had stolen from a jewelry store in southern China.

According to police, the 49-year-old suspect, whose surname is Hou, was disguised as a buyer at this jewelry store in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province on Thursday with a 24-year-old female partner Zhou.  

The shopkeeper told officials that the necklace was worth more than 10 million yuan (1.2 million pounds). The two have been detained by the police. 

According to a statement from the Jieyang police on Sunday, Hou swallowed at least 40 jade beads on the necklace. The official is waiting for the man to pass them out of his system.

To avoid arrest, the suspect Hou (pictured) swallowed a jade necklace he stole from a jewelry store in Guangdong Province, southern China

The shopkeeper told the police that the necklace (pictured on the left) was worth more than 10 million yuan (1.2 million pounds). X-ray (picture on the right) shows 40 beads on the suspect’s abdomen

Since Tuesday, the two suspects have come to the jewelry store in Yangmei District every day, pretending to be interested in buying this jade necklace. 

At around 11 am on Thursday, the couple came to the store for the fifth time and asked the salesperson to check the necklace again.  

According to the police, Hou complained that the shop was too dark to see the color of the beads, so he took the necklace outside to look at it under "natural sunlight", while Zhou stayed in the shop. 

Starting from Tuesday, the two suspects have come to the jewelry store in Yangmei District every day, pretending to be interested in buying this jade necklace.

The closed-circuit television footage released by the authorities showed that Hou was wearing black clothes, standing outside the jewelry store, and then suddenly left the store with a necklace, prompting the shocked salesperson to call the police. 

“The owner claimed that the necklace was worth more than 10 million yuan (1.2 million pounds). We took this case very seriously and immediately started an investigation,” said police officer Huang Xushan, adding that they suspected Hou was a drug addict. 

Zhou was immediately arrested by the authorities. Officials later discovered that the couple had planned a robbery after getting to know the Chinese dating app Momo. 

The police used the face recognition system to confirm Hou's identity through his head. Previously, he had been in jail for stealing jade ornaments. 

The closed-circuit television footage released by the authorities showed that Hou was wearing black clothes standing outside a jewelry store in Yangmei District, Jieyang City, Guangdong Province

The suspect was eventually found and arrested in Foshan, 400 kilometers (248 miles) from Jieyang City on Friday. However, there are no traces of the necklace at all. 

The police suspected that Hou might have swallowed the gems and took him to the hospital. An X-ray scan showed that there were 40 beads in his abdomen.  

"I have passed it halfway," Hou told Jieyang News. "The rest is still in me."   

Due to ongoing investigations, the police have not yet lodged charges against Hou Hezhou. 

The following comments have been reviewed in advance.

The views expressed in the above content are the views of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We no longer accept comments on this article.

Published by United Press Limited

Part of "Daily Mail", "Sunday Mail" and Metro Media Group