Suspect in donation box thefts at Hong Kong religious sites comes unstuck
Man allegedly used sticky plastic boards to retrieve cash from donation boxes, including at city’s largest mosque in Tsim Sha Tsui
A man has been arrested for allegedly stealing cash from donation boxes with sticky plastic boards outside various religious venues, including Hong Kong’s largest mosque.
Inspector So Sin-yi, from the Yau Tsim district investigation team, said on Saturday that reports of suspicious activity near the Kowloon Mosque in Tsim Sha Tsui began surfacing on July 24, when staff noticed a significant and unexplained drop in donation box collections.
Security footage showed that suspicious individuals had been using adhesive-coated plastic boards attached to strings to steal cash through the narrow slots of donation boxes.
Investigators traced several incidents on July 16, 18 and 25 to the same suspect, who used similar methods at the site.
Accomplices were also present to act as lookouts during the thefts, So said.
On Friday, officers from Yau Tsim district caught the alleged culprit outside the mosque on Nathan Road and arrested him. The mainland Chinese man, 46, held a two-way permit, a travel document used to enter Hong Kong, and claimed to be unemployed, police said.