Hong Kong hawker, 90, anxious over livelihood if authorities do not return confiscated cart
- Chan Tak-ching left visibly shaken when Food and Environmental Hygiene Department officers took away her roasted chestnut stall in dramatic altercation on Monday
- Department says operations ‘ensure food safety and protect people’s health’, adding area is hawking black spot for complaints
A 90-year-old hawker may permanently lose the roasted chestnut cart she has relied on for decades to eke out a living in Hong Kong after law enforcement officers seized the stall while she was briefly away.
A row broke out between Chan Tak-ching and dozens of officers in Cheung Sha Wan on Monday, drawing more than a hundred onlookers at one point.
The elderly woman was seen sitting on the ground and pleading with police and hawker control officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, begging them to only issue her a fine. Chan said she had briefly left the area for a toilet break and handed the cart over to a 29-year-old man, who was later taken away.
The hawker said the man was her goddaughter’s son. The mother said he had been charged with unlicensed hawking and had been released on a HK$1,000 (US$127) bail pending a trial set for March 29.
Chan told the Post on Tuesday that she was distressed to learn about the latest developments.
“He has been helping me run the cart for several years, while I take care of the money bag,” she said. “The female officer was going too far ... She said we were peddling the chestnuts at a hawker black spot, but in fact, we were not.”