Rise in Pickpocketing Cases in Hong Kong: Woman Caught on Video Stealing Wallet from Flower Shop Customer

2023-08-25 00:11:23

The number of pickpocketing cases in Hong Kong tripled year-on-year in the first half of this year. Recently, a video has been circulated on social platforms online. A woman in a black shirt followed a man who was regarding to leave the flower shop with flowers, and reached into the man’s backpack to steal the wallet. Distribute, take out all the cash and then discard the wallet on the floor of the flower shop. The police responded that the incident happened last Saturday, the victim donated regarding 2,000 yuan, and the two culprits are being hunted.

The incident was captured by closed-circuit television. The film is regarding 43 seconds long: At the beginning of the clip, a middle-aged woman in a black shirt with a silk scarf on her shoulders, holding flowers, walks close to a woman in a rucksack who has just bought flowers. The man intends to leave the flower shop; according to the footage, there were at least a few customers in the shop at the time, and the environment was relatively crowded. During the period, the woman in black shirt used flowers as a cover and reached into the man’s backpack. The moment the man left the shop, the woman succeeded Steal the wallet.

But the black-shirted woman did not leave the store immediately, but returned to the store and shared the spoils with a woman in white wearing a leopard-print environmental protection bag. The two opened the wallet, tossed and took out the banknotes, and then threw it on the floor of the flower shop. Before throwing it away, the two suspects were also highly alert and looked outside the shop first, as if they were worried that the victim would turn back and be found.

The police said that they received a report from a 64-year-old man surnamed Guo at 4:43 pm last Saturday (19th), saying that following leaving a flower shop at No. 164 Prince Edward Road West in Mong Kok, he found his wallet missing and turned back for questioning At that time, the clerk found his wallet on the ground and lost regarding 2,000 yuan in cash. The police are now looking for the culprits. The two suspects are between 30 and 40 years old. According to reports, the thief took the cash, but the victim’s ID card and other documents were still in the wallet.

Pickpocketing more than triples in first half

According to police figures, there were 228 pickpocketing cases in the first half of this year, more than double the 73 cases in the same period last year. The police reminded that the thieves will choose crowded places to attack, wander around waiting for the target, and observe the target’s placement of property, usually in a group of 1 to 3 people. When the thieves lock the target, the gang will attract or distract the target’s attention. The police pointed out that thieves take easy things rather than hard things. If citizens carefully protect their personal belongings and raise their vigilance, they can reduce the chance of becoming a target.

Originally published on AM730

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