Gang ambushed in Aberdeen raid
Burglars used water to silence jewellery shop alarm and may be linked to two other break-ins
A gang of six burglars were stopped in their tracks during a smash-and-grab at an Aberdeen jewellery shop yesterday after they had thrown the store's alarm into a bucket of water to silence it.
Police have linked the gang to at least two other recent break-ins in which HK$5 million of goods were stolen from a dried seafood store and a jewellery shop in Kowloon West.
Burglars seen in the surveillance footage of the two raids, in March and June, appeared to be the same men arrested yesterday, a senior police officer said. In each case, the gang removed the alarm installed outside their target shop and threw it into a bucket of water to disable it.
"They smashed display cabinets using hammers and crowbars and snatched anything of value, stuffing it into bags before they fled by car," another police officer said. "Every raid was a race against time - they were in and out of there in two minutes."
The officer said it was thought the gang was being run by Hongkongers who had recruited mainlanders to do the burglaries.
"The mainlanders were responsible for carrying out these raids, while the Hongkongers acted as lookouts," he said.
The Hong Kong Island regional crime unit began investigating the gang recently after a tip-off.