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Smash-and-grab thieves take handbags and wallets worth HK$440,000 from Tsuen Wan shopping centre
Trio wearing surgical masks break in to store with sledgehammers in latest such incident
PUBLISHED : Friday, 07 March, 2014, 4:11pm
UPDATED : Friday, 07 March, 2014, 6:08pm
Clifford Lo [email protected]
The smash-and-grab took place at a first-floor shop at the City Landmark on Chun On Street in Tsuen Wan. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A gang fled with 11 handbags and wallets worth HK$440,000 during a smash-and-grab at a Tsuen Wan shopping centre discovered on Friday morning.
Three men wearing surgical masks smashed their way into the first-floor shop using sledgehammers before grabbing the goods and escaping.
A security guard on patrol at the City Landmark on Chun On Street noticed the shop’s glass door was broken and called police at about 6.30am on Friday.
“Two three-foot-long sledgehammers and a shopping trolley were found outside the shop,” a police spokesman said.
Surveillance cameras captured images of the three men – two Chinese and one Asian – but their faces were obscured by the surgical masks. The two Chinese men were also wearing sunglasses.
Officers searched nearby areas but no one was arrested. Investigations by Tsuen Wan crime officers are continuing.
The raid was similar to a smash-and-grab that occurred on Sunday in Tuen Mun. In that raid, three thieves smashed their way into a jewellery store before escaping with six items worth about HK$275,000. They also left behind a sledgehammer and a shopping trolley.
Three other similar cases happened in Tsim Sha Tsui and Tin Shui Wai between July and December last year. A total of HK$7 million worth of valuables was taken in two of the cases.
In December, police arrested two of three robbers who tried to make off with HK$9.1 million of watches from a shop in Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. They used a three-foot-long sledgehammer to smash a display window and grabbed 28 watches.
In August, an Oriental Watch outlet in a shopping arcade at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Tsim Sha Tsui lost 240 Tudor watches worth HK$6.5 million in a three-minute smash-and-grab.
In July, a jewellery store in Tin Shui Wai was raided by thieves using hammers carried in a shopping trolley. They made off with HK$500,000 worth of goods in one minute.
