Three luxury flats in Hong Kong’s upscale Repulse Bay burgled; valuables worth HK$440,000 stolen
Watches, jewellery and cash among items taken from properties in well-to-do area
Three luxury flats in Hong Kong’s upscale neighbourhood of Repulse Bay were burgled on Saturday, with cash, jewellery and watches worth HK$440,000 stolen.
According to police, one flat owner, 69, called the force at about 10pm on Saturday after returning home to find his property on Repulse Bay Road had been broken into.
Officers found signs that the flat had been ransacked and discovered an estimated HK$400,000 worth of cash, jewellery and watches missing.
At another flat, owned by a 72-year-old woman, police also found signs it had been searched, but nothing was found to be missing.
A third flat, owned by a 58-year-old woman, had also been ransacked, police said, and HK$40,000 worth of belongings, including jewellery and five watches, had been taken.
Officers had not made any arrests as of Sunday morning.
Hong Kong has seen a surge in burglaries in upscale neighbourhoods such as The Peak, Shouson Hill, Deep Water Bay, Repulse Bay and Kowloon Tong.
Just last week, about HK$170,000 in valuables and clothes was taken from the home of former beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi-lei in Happy Valley.
The number of break-ins involving losses of at least HK$500,000 increased from 31 in 2015 to 54 last year. There were 13 such cases in the first half of this year.
Police received 1,149 reports of burglaries in the year up to July, down 18.3 per cent on 1,407 in the same period last year.
