A man in Beijing is being charged with stealing his wife's cell phone at knifepoint in a stocking mask because he suspected she was using it to send flirty text messages to another man, local media reported on Saturday.

The Fengtai district procuratorate charged the suspect, surnamed Chen, with committing armed robbery in November 2013.

Chen is accused of breaking into his wife's dormitory at work with women's stockings on his head and demanding that she write down her phone's screenlock code so he could access it.

Chen also robbed his wife's roommate so as "not to raise doubt as to their relationship," reported the Beijing Times.

However, his unnamed wife soon recognized Chen and convinced him to return the stolen goods and turn himself in to police, the newspaper said.

Chen claimed he had been trying to delete a contact on his wife's WeChat account since April last year, with whom Chen believed she was exchanging intimate messages, but he could not unlock her phone.

Chen explained his suspicions piqued last October, when his wife decided to quit her job in Beijing for another in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province.

Beijing Times