Million dollar diamond heist from secret safe in wardrobe: woman finds bedroom ransacked
Safe was concealed in bedroom wardrobe in Golden Dragon Garden flat on Kung Lok Road
Diamonds estimated to be worth more than HK$1 million were stolen from a safe hidden in a wardrobe in a Ngau Tau Kok apartment on Wednesday.
The break-in came to light when the tenant – a 55-year-old woman – found that one of the bedrooms in her Golden Dragon Garden flat on Kung Lok Road had been ransacked. She called the police at about 9.45am.
“The safe’s key was missing and some diamonds were stolen from the safe. The diamonds are initially estimated to be worth more than HK$1 million,” a police spokeswoman said.
It is understood that the safe was hidden inside a wardrobe in the bedroom, and there were marks on the safe where someone had tried to prise it open.
Officers from the Sau Mau Ping police district crime squad are investigating.
On January 3, a safe containing HK$5.9 million in jewellery and gold ornaments was stolen from the luxury residence of a mainland businessman in Yuen Long in what appeared to be the city’s costliest burglary of the new year.
On January 5, a Hong Kong businesswoman who claimed to have kept her savings and business turnover at home for years because she did not trust banks lost more than HK$2 million in cash and HK$100,000 worth of gold ornaments when her flat in Mong Kok was burgled. The apartment is less than 100 metres away from Mong Kok police station.
READ MORE: Burglars sneak into Hong Kong luxury home, steal safe holding HK$5.9 million in valuables
On January 8, five members of a smash-and-grab gang made off with more than HK$2 million worth of handbags from a store in a Tsuen Wan shopping mall during a three-minute raid.
Despite a string of high-profile break-ins in exclusive areas of the city last year, overall burglary figures were down nearly 6 per cent to 2,153 in the first 10 months last year compared with 2,288 reported incidents over the same period in 2014.
In one of last year’s most high-profile burglaries, the home of HSBC’s Asia-Pacific chief, Peter Wong Tung-shun, was burgled in October. Eight watches and jewellery worth a total of HK$2.45 million were stolen in the raid.