Five Hong Kong schoolboys arrested for snatching woman’s HK$10,000 mobile phone at housing estate
- Robbery took place at Shek Wai Kok Estate in Tsuen Wan on Monday evening, with one boy allegedly stealing the phone and the others acting as lookouts
- Police arrested the five boys on Tuesday night and recovered the stolen phone from a shop
Five schoolboys, including some as young as 12 years old, have been arrested on suspicion of stealing a mobile phone worth HK$10,000 (US$1,300) from a person at a Hong Kong housing estate.
One of the boys, who were aged between 12 and 16, reportedly approached the 25-year-old woman and snatched her phone outside Shek Fong House in Tsuen Wan’s Shek Wai Kok Estate at around 7.30pm on Monday.
“The victim was carrying the phone in her hand at the time. The suspect asked for directions to divert her attention and snatched her phone,” Inspector Wan Pik-yee of the Tsuen Wan criminal investigation unit said on Wednesday.
She said an investigation showed the other four acted as lookouts. All five fled before officers arrived.
Wan said the gang sold the phone for HK$2,700 to a shop in Tsuen Fung Centre shopping arcade on Castle Peak Road in the same district and “shared the money evenly” among themselves.