Hong Kong police search for robbers behind HK$760,000 jewellery theft at Mid-Levels flat
- Burglary reported on Conduit Road in the Mid-Levels after tenant found bedroom safe ‘prised open’
- Incident follows two others reported earlier in week, with HK$170,000 in goods taken from Mong Kok flat and HK$120,000 stolen from Lantau Island temple
Hong Kong police are searching for suspects after HK$760,000 (US$96,816) worth of jewellery was stolen from a safe at a flat in an affluent residential area.
Officers were called to Realty Gardens housing estate on Conduit Road in the Mid-Levels at about 9am on Friday after receiving a report of a break-in from a woman living at the complex’s Vienna Block.
The burglary was discovered when she found one of the bedrooms had been ransacked, the force said.
“Inside the bedroom, jewellery estimated to be worth HK$760,000 was stolen from a safe that was prised open,” a police spokesman said.
Detectives from the force’s Central criminal investigation unit were working on the case, with officers pouring through security footage to uncover evidence. No arrests have been made so far.
The incident follows two other robberies reported earlier in the week, including the theft of HK$170,000 in cash and valuables on Thursday from a Portland Street flat in Mong Kok.
The tenant, a 57-year-old man, contacted police after returning home at 5pm that day and discovering the flat’s front door and security gate had been broken open.
Police on Sunday said they were also searching for suspects linked to the theft of HK$120,000 from a temple on Lantau Island’s Keung Shan Road.
On March 1, HK$730,000 in cash and valuables was stolen from a safe at an upscale flat in Repulse Bay. The residents discovered the goods, which included five watches worth HK$680,000, were missing when they return home at about 10pm.
Last year, police handled 886 reports of burglary across the city, down nearly 40 per cent from 1,472 cases logged in 2021. According to the force, last year’s 43 per cent detection rate was the highest in the past 46 years.
When announcing the crime figures for 2022, police last month said the number of robbery and burglary cases was the lowest since records began in 1969.
Police last year logged 77 reports of robberies, down 37 per cent from the 123 reported in 2021.
