Raid riddle of musician's HK$5m safe
A safe containing HK$5 million in cash and jewellery was stolen from the luxury home of well-known Taiwanese musician Liu Jia-chang in Tseung Kwan O, say police.
Detectives are investigating whether the break-in at his threestorey house in the Junk Bay Villa on Hang Hau Road was an inside job.
Liu and his family were not at the residence at the time of the break-in, police said.
The burglary was discovered at about 10.30am when a female assistant went to the property with workers to replace the safe. She immediately alerted Liu's wife, Chang Jia-jeng, who called police. Liu, 68, and his wife, 63, left for Macau on Saturday night. Chang returned to Hong Kong on Sunday night but stayed in another apartment in Kowloon.
Their son, pop singer Jeremy Liu, is also away.
Initial investigations showed that the 1 metre by 1 metre safe was stolen from the first-floor master bedroom, where it was hidden in the closet, a police officer said.
'The safe contained jewellery, other valuables and about HK$1 million in cash,' he said. The jewellery and non-cash valuables were worth about HK$4 million.
Police said a bedroom on the ground floor was ransacked.
But the officer said no signs of a break-in were discovered. He added that police were investigating all angles and that 'an inside job is one of the possibilities'.
The family has three domestic helpers who said they knew nothing of the burglary.
The house was not fixed with security devices and the closed-circuit television system at the Junk Bay Villa complex was not switched on.
Liu owns another house in the same estate, which was not targeted in the burglary. He returned to Hong Kong from Macau yesterday afternoon and was helping police.
Meanwhile, police said there had been several burglaries in nearby Clear Water Bay Road in Tseung Kwan O in the past two months and officers were looking into whether they were linked.
