Robbers take HK$370,000 in cash and valuables from Sai Kung house

Three Putonghua-speaking robbers escaped with HK$370,000 in cash and valuables from a three-storey house in Sai Kung early on Thursday, after threatening a businessman, his wife and a maid.

Police were still hunting for the three men, two of whom were described as being about 1.9 metres tall with strong builds, and the other about 1.76 metres tall.

The intruders, wearing caps and gloves, broke into the house in Nam Shan San Tsuen Road at about 1.30am, when the couple and their two children and two domestic helpers were asleep.

They used a wooden ladder to climb over the surrounding wall into the front yard and prised open the sliding glass door to enter the house, police said.

The businessman’s wife, 41 – who was sleeping with her two children in a first-floor bedroom – and her domestic helper were awakened by noises when the trio were ransacking the first-floor living room. As the pair went to check, they were confronted by the intruders.

“They were threatened with sharp objects and ordered to hand over all the money and valuables,” a police officer said. The victims were too frightened to look closely at the sharp objects, but thought they might have included a screwdriver, he said.

One of the assailants guarded the two women while the other two went to the second-floor master bedroom. “They woke up the businessman and tied him up with a belt before stealing cash and valuables from drawers,” the officer said.

Officers were called in after the trio fled. According to police, the hold-up took about 10 minutes and no one was injured.

The children and a second helper, who was in the ground-floor bedroom, remained asleep during the hold-up. Officers mounted a search in the area but no one was arrested.

Another officer said it was the first such robbery in the village in the past few months. It did not seem to be linked to other burglaries in Sai Kung because the descriptions of the culprits did not match, he said.

Police would step up patrols in the area, and the crime prevention bureau would contact the house’s owner to discuss how to improve security, he said.

There were 2,824 reports of burglary in Hong Kong in the first eight months of this year, down from 2,906 in the same period of last year.