Hong Kong diamond heist by 12-year-old girl and gang linked to jewellery raids abroad
The audacious theft of a HK$36 million diamond necklace from a high-end Tsim Sha Shui shopping centre is just one of a series of similar crimes carried out across the region.
The audacious theft of a HK$36 million diamond necklace from a high-end Tsim Sha Shui shopping centre last week is just one of a series of similar crimes carried out across the region in which children serve as shoplifters, it has emerged.
Near-identical heists have taken place in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Macau in recent months and, according to a security expert, all were attributable to a mainland Chinese gang that pulled off a string of heists across Europe in the last few years.
In Hong Kong, a child who stole a 100-carat necklace from an Emperor Jewellery shop at the 1881 Heritage mall on Friday is still at large. The girl, thought to be aged between 12 and 14, was in the company of three adults, who kept shop staff busy while she helped herself to the jewellery. They were caught on CCTV cameras leaving the mall.
For Martin Winckel of International Jeweller Security, a Germany-based consultancy, clues point to a group of jewellery thieves training children for their heists.
"Descriptions of one of the thieves in Singapore bear a resemblance to [a man surnamed] Luo," Winckel said, referring to a Chinese man believed to be a member of a notorious syndicate previously active in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
The girl was accompanying a couple, who distracted the sales staff in much the same way as the Tsim Sha Tsui case. Staff at the store had declined to comment.
