Production firm says three men claiming to be Portuguese stole equipment worth US$250,000
An online manhunt is under way to catch a bogus film crew who stole camera equipment worth about US$250,000 from a Hong Kong production company.
The victim of the scam, Wan Chai-based production house Asia Pacific Vision (APV), posted a video online to alert others, as well as a photo of one of the suspects posing with a camera he was about to steal.
APV managing director Christopher Slaughter said three men, claiming to be from a Portuguese firm called Lusa Producoes that was making a travel video about Hong Kong, disappeared on July 5.
'We provided a camera attendant and a driver, and took them around Hong Kong and shot for two days at the usual tourist spots ... We had an appointment with them on the third day and they didn't show up,' he said.
When police checked the men's Wan Chai hotel room, they had already checked out, paying in cash and leaving behind the empty boxes in which the equipment was stored. It appears they had used fake passports for identification.
APV was contacted through an online service, Kemps, which connects camera crews with rental services. The hirers seemed to have an authentic website and appeared knowledgable about cameras.