Thief tricks Peninsula hotel into opening room safe, walks off with HK$50K
Peninsula staff unwittingly help fake guest carry out HK$50,000 theft
A thief who pretended to be a guest at the luxury Peninsula hotel coolly tricked staff into opening a safe and escaped with HK$50,000 in foreign currency and valuables, police revealed.
The man, a foreigner, approached the front desk of the hotel in Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, at about 4am on Sunday, claiming to have lost his room key. The room number he gave was occupied by a French businessman, whose name and birth date he gave as proof of identity. The real guest and his wife were in bed in the room at the time.
"Speaking in English, he told hotel staff that he had lost his room key and demanded another one," a police officer said.
After obtaining the spare key, the man apparently waited until the couple went out on Sunday afternoon before letting himself into their room.
"He then telephoned the front desk from the room saying he had forgotten the password of the safe and asked for assistance to open it," the officer said.
He greeted hotel staff wearing a pair of slippers, a blue T-shirt and jeans and they helped him open the safe.