Smash-and-grab raid nets Hong Kong gang HK$100,000 worth of gold ornaments

Theft at Sheung Shui goldsmith marks city’s fifth such raid in the last year

Crime in Hong Kong

Clifford Lo

Published: 1:23pm, 9 Mar 2018

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Hong Kong police were on Friday morning searching for a smash-and-grab gang that made off with HK$100,000 (US$12,800) worth of gold ornaments in a predawn raid.

The break-in took place at a goldsmith’s shop on the ground floor of Shun Chung Lau on San Tsoi Street, Sheung Shui soon after 3.30am, according to police, who were alerted when the daring swoop set off the store’s alarm.

Officers said the shop’s rolling shutter was up and the display window had been smashed. The robbers fled before police arrived.

“Gold ornaments worth about HK$100,000 were stolen in the incident,” a spokesman for the force said.

Officers searched the area but arrested no one.

The incident was the city’s fifth smash-and-grab theft in the last year.

Last month, three robbers used a hammer to smash the display window of a shop on a busy street in Yuen Long and stole more than HK$1 million worth of second-hand watches in a raid that took less than 20 seconds.

In December, three masked men used a sledgehammer to break into a pop-up store for online luxury bazaar Guiltless in Central and fled with 15 designer handbags worth HK$1.44 million.

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In September, three thieves fled on a motorbike with HK$24 million worth of jewellery after smashing a store window with hammers at the Tsim Sha Tsui branch of the Chow Sang Sang jewellery chain on Canton Road.

And last March, a masked robber took just seven seconds to smash a display window with a hammer and make off with a diamond ring worth HK$5.26 million from the Tsim Sha Tsui branch of 3D-Gold on Nathan Road.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Robbers steal gold items in daring raid

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