Taipei  - Taiwan police have arrested a funeral parlour worker who stole cash and jewelry from a dead American, a newspaper said Tuesday.

Chen Chien-feng was arrested Monday for stealing 3,700 Taiwan dollars (100 US dollars) and jewelry from the home of Sandy Richard Puckett, a 60-year-old teacher at the Taipei American School, while removing Puckett's body Monday morning, the China Times said.

According to the paper, Puckett, a resident in Taipei for 18 years, was found dead Monday morning at his home by a caretaker, who called police.

Police arrived at Puckett's home and determined he could have died two days earlier from heart disease. As Puckett had no family in Taiwan, police notified Puckett's colleague.

Puckett's colleague said that when he visited Puckett's home Monday morning, he saw some money in Puckett's wallet. But when he returned to Puckett's home in the afternoon, the money was gone, so he suspected a police officer might have taken away the money.

So the colleague told police about the missing money. An investigation showed that Chen Chien-feng, a funeral parlour worker, had stolen the money as well as six gold rings and some jewelry from Puckett's home.

Prosecutor Wang Yi-wen said that he was happy that the thief had been caught. Otherwise, Puckett's colleague would think a police officer had committed the theft, and Taiwan police's image would have been tarnished. (dpa)