Sat 21 Old Case A 42-year-old man is convicted of attempting to rape a 12-year-old girl 20 years ago. In July 1993, the man, then aged 22, followed the girl home, claiming to be a gas company meter reader. He forced her on the floor and was about to rape her, when the phone rang. She improvised and said her father was on the way home, and the assailant fled the scene. The police collected a palm print, but never found the attacker. Last April, the man was caught stealing condoms and the police matched his fingerprint to the unsolved rape case. The man got married in 2000 and has a daughter. He denies the charges but is sentenced to four years in jail. Sun 22 Red Flag At around 3pm, a passerby sees that the Hong Kong flag hanging outside Tuen Mun police station is upside-down. He notifies the police. A spokesperson says that the station corrected the error quickly, and will remind staff to be more careful in future. Mon 23 Flat Packed Three drug smugglers are arrested for hiding drugs in residential sales brochures. At 5pm, an officer finds a bag containing 40 tightly wrapped sales brochures for Hong Kong residential properties inside a car. Suspicious, the officer inspects the brochures and finds that one page from each one is filled with a layer of methamphetamine. Immigration finds 1.12 kilograms of the powder, which is worth $700,000, and calls the smuggling tactic “innovative.” Tue 24 Christmas Prank Around 30 residents in a Yuen Long public housing estate receive an invitation from a 33-year-old female neighbor to a Christmas party at her home on Christmas day. The invited residents are not familiar with the woman, and are surprised by her hospitality. At 3pm, a resident decides to knock on the woman’s door and inquire if they need to bring a gift. The woman has no clue what her neighbor is talking about. The police believe that she was pranked by someone who wanted to embarrass her on Christmas day. Wed 25 Pee Break At 10am, a 52-year-old taxi driver accidentally hits a 72-year-old-woman en route to an urgent toilet break at a Yau Ma Tei public restroom. Fortunately, the woman sustains only minor injuries. The driver continues to hold his bladder while the police conduct an initial investigation. He finally tells the officer that he really needs to urinate. The officer grants him permission to go to the bathroom before returning to help with the investigation. Thu 26 Crime Drama Five men and two women from local drama group FM Theatre Power are detained for seven hours after the police receive complaints that they are obstructing public space. One says the police assaulted him and mocked his sexual orientation. The police also keep the group’s phones as evidence after the group recorded the arrest. A lawyer says the police can only do so if the phones were directly involved in obstructing the public space. Fri 27 Paper Trail At 6am, hundreds of pieces of paper are scattered along Caine Road. A pedestrian finds that the papers reveal information about students from the Hong Kong Institute of Technology, including their names, ID card numbers, photocopies of travel documents and even information about their guardians. The school explains that they accidentally threw the documents away; they are setting up a team to investigate the lapse.
