Third person held over cash frenzy sparked by HK$52m security van spill
Third person held as police hunt for HK$9m still missing after security van shed its load on busy Wan Chai road, sparking banknote frenzy
A third person was arrested last night over a cash-grabbing frenzy in Wan Chai, three days after bundles of banknotes totalling HK$52.5 million tumbled from a money transport van onto a busy road on Christmas Eve.
Police arrested the man, 23, on suspicion of theft in his Ap Lei Chau flat last night. Officers seized two computers, two ferry ticket stubs and a mobile phone. The man was detained overnight for further questioning.
About HK$9 million was still missing yesterday as the van's owner, security firm G4S, apologised to its contract employer, Bank of China Hong Kong.
Two other suspects, a man and a woman, were still in custody on suspicion of theft after officers traced the pair with CCTV footage and found HK$165,000 stashed under a bed in the man's home in Kowloon Bay, a police spokesman said. They had not been charged.
The man, 43, and woman, 36, were passengers in a taxi that had stopped at the scene of the cash spill.
Police repeated their warning for people who had picked up the spilled money from Gloucester Road to return it.
Barrister and lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit said: "If the persons who have taken cash from the scene volunteer to surrender it to the police in a short period of time, it is less likely for the police to charge them with theft as it may be harder to build a case."
