Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-law-and-crime/article/2149761/luxury-sai-kung-house-hit-hong-kong-burglars
Hong Kong/ Law and Crime

Luxury Sai Kung house hit by Hong Kong burglars who make off with watches, jewellery and handbags

At least 40 items stolen in leafy residential neighbourhood while only the family’s helper at home

A domestic helper was on the ground floor of a two-storey house off Clear Water Bay Road, and heard a noise from the bedroom above, prompting her to flee and seek help from a neighbour. Photo: Google

Hong Kong police were on Thursday scouring the city for two masked burglars who broke into a businessman’s luxury Sai Kung house and made off with at least 40 high-value items of jewellery.

The homeowner and his family were not at the property when the thieves gained entry on Tuesday via a first-floor bedroom window. Police were unable to place a value on the stolen items, which included watches, jewellery and handbags.

Only the family’s domestic helper was home during the raid, which took place shortly before 9.30pm. She was on the ground floor of the two-storey house, off Clear Water Bay Road, and heard a noise from the bedroom above, prompting her to flee and get help from a neighbour.

Surveillance camera footage showed two masked men had climbed through the bedroom window.

“The pair ... made off with the valuables towards a nearby hillside before officers arrived,” a police source said.

Officers immediately combed the area but no arrests were made. As they carried out inquiries in the neighbourhood, a 73-year-old woman living on the ground floor of an adjacent block discovered her home had also been hit.

“A bedroom window was prised open and the room ransacked, but no valuables were stolen from that flat,” the source said.

The same gang was probably responsible for both break-ins, the source added, and they struck around dinner time because tenants were likely to be inside the property eating or watching television, meaning alarm systems would be turned off.

Police handled 506 reports of burglaries across the city in the first four months of this year, according to official statistics. The number was down 17.2 per cent on the 678 in the same period last year.