Police hunt for burglars who broke into Hong Kong bar and removed safe containing weekly takings of HK$140,000
- Officers were called to F18 Bar on mezzanine floor of Maison Rose housing complex at about 10am
- First-floor restaurant in the building was also burgled and more than HK$20,000 stolen from a cash register
Hong Kong police were searching for two masked burglars who were captured by surveillance cameras removing a safe containing about HK$140,000 (US$17,950) from a pub in the early hours of Monday.
Officers were called to the F18 Bar on the mezzanine floor of the Maison Rose housing complex on Cheung Sha Wan Road, Sham Shui Po at about 10am after a female cleaner found signs that the pub had been ransacked.
Police believed the raid happened after the bar closed at about 3am.
The owner said the padlock on the bar’s front door was damaged and surveillance camera footage showed two men wearing masks and caps pushing the 60cm-high safe, which contained the bar’s takings for a week, about HK$140,000.
He believed the burglars had visited the pub to scout around before the predawn raid.
He said it was the first time the pub had been burgled since it opened for business about three years ago.
A police spokesman said a first-floor restaurant in the building was also burgled and initial investigation showed more than HK$20,000 was stolen from a cash register. Investigators believed the same people carried out the two burglaries.
Detectives from the Sham Shui Po criminal investigation unit are handling the case. So far, no one has been arrested.
According to official statistics, police handled 1,575 reports of burglary across the city in 2018, down 15.9 per cent from 1,872 cases in 2017.
