Bungling Hong Kong robber storms petrol station, finds plain-clothes policeman
- The man, thought to be aged between 30 and 40, flees the Yuen Long facility empty-handed after officer draws gun
A masked and hammer-wielding robber barged into a petrol station in northern Hong Kong during Monday’s early hours, only to turn tail when he found a plain-clothes policeman there.
The man fled empty-handed when the officer drew his gun in the shop of the Sinopec station on the Tam Mei section of Castle Peak Road, Yuen Long shortly after 3.30am.
By 1pm, officers were searching for the man, thought to be aged between 30 and 40. The robber wore a red jacket and black trousers at the time of the bungled hold-up.
A team of detectives from the Yuen Long criminal investigation unit had been called to the station to investigate an earlier incident, in which a motorist filled his tank with HK$500 worth of petrol and drove off without paying, at about 2am.
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As one of the plain-clothes officers was investigating at the petrol station, a Cantonese-speaking man, wearing a black mask and a hat, rushed into the shop, threatened the staff with a hammer and declared a robbery, according to police.
“As a verbal warning was ignored, the officer drew his gun to guard,” a police spokesman said. “The suspect then fled.”
Officers scouted the area, but no arrest was made.
During the second half of last year, there was a significant rise in reports of robbery in Hong Kong, with the force blaming the anti-government protests for exhausting police resources.
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Officers handled 170 reports of robbery from January to November, up nearly 28 per cent from 133 in the same period of 2018.
Since August, police have stopped foot patrols because of the civil unrest and a backlash against the force. Patrols are now conducted in police vans.
The eight months of unrest was sparked in June by opposition to a now-withdrawn extradition bill, which would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which the city does not have existing agreements, including mainland China.
Separately, police were searching for eight men who used two cars to ram and intercept a Lexus sedan and then assaulted its 19-year-old driver on Po Ning Road outside Hau Tak Estate in Tseung Kwan O, shortly after 1.15am on Monday. The culprits fled in one of the cars before police arrived.
The driver suffered minor injuries to his arms and legs and was taken to Tseung Kwan O Hospital for treatment. Police later seized two pills in his car and arrested him for drug possession.
