Police on the hunt for three men who stole safe and handbag from senior government official’s home on Hong Kong Island
Family was on holiday. Foreign domestic worker finds front door forced open, house ransacked
PUBLISHED : Monday, 28 March, 2016, 1:02pm
UPDATED : Monday, 28 March, 2016, 6:26pm
Clifford Lo
The Hong Kong Island home of permanent secretary for financial services and the treasury Andrew Wong Ho-yuen was burgled and a small safe and a handbag were stolen, prompting police to mount a fruitless manhunt in the early hours of Monday and after daybreak.
The break-in came to light at about 11pm on Sunday after a foreign domestic helper, 56, returned to the residence in Manderly Garden off Deep Water Bay Road in Aberdeen and found the front door had been forced open and the house ransacked.
It is understood Wong is out of town for holidays and will return to Hong Kong later this week.
“Initial investigations showed a safe and a brown-coloured bag were stolen from one of the bedrooms,” a police spokesman said.
Officers are investigating what valuables the safe and handbag contained.
Police are searching for three men in connection with the case.
“Security camera footage showed the three men scaled the surrounding wall of the housing estate and then used a crowbar to prise open the front door of the house to gain entry at about 9pm [on Sunday],” a source with knowledge of the investigation said.
CCTV footage showed they left by the same route about 30 minutes later, he added.
The three intruders wore black clothing, and each carried a backpack.
In 2012, the Aberdeen home of two senior government officials in the same housing estate was burgled, and more than HK$20,000 in cash and valuables was stolen.
The house was occupied by former permanent secretary for development Thomas Chow Tat-ming and his wife, Elizabeth Tse Man-yee, who is permanent secretary for financial services and the treasury. Chow is now permanent secretary for the civil service.
Separately, three luxury houses at Casa Marina housing estate on Lo Fai Road, Tai Po were targeted in a week earlier this month. Cash and valuables worth HK$850,000 were stolen from two safes in one of the houses. Police said nothing was stolen from the other two residences
There was a series of burglaries across the city earlier this year, with the biggest case so far taking place on January 20, when thieves stole diamonds worth more than HK$8 million from a safe in a Ngau Tau Kok apartment.
Despite a string of break-ins in exclusive areas of the city last year, burglary figures were down 4.5 per cent, numbering 2,579 compared with 2,700 in 2014.
