A 12-year-old girl told yesterday how she was held hostage by a burglar who broke into her parents' luxury flat while the family was asleep.
Vanessa Law Hillum was grabbed around the neck by the thief and marched to her parents' bedroom door after the family's maid was threatened at knife-point.
Vanessa was held by the burglar as he negotiated for cash with her parents who locked themselves in the room and dialled the police.
'The man demanded what my parents could afford to pay him and they passed him $1,200 in cash through a gap under the door but they didn't open the door,' she said.
When the police arrived, the robber panicked and fled into the bathroom. Vanessa let in police who arrested the man. No one was hurt in the incident.
'I wasn't afraid,' Vanessa said. 'He wasn't armed and he didn't hurt me.' The father of Vanessa, an only child, is businessman Law Fook-kong, who runs a transport company.
'She didn't cry or scream for help when she was being held by the robber,' he said.
