High Profile Burglaries

[jmbf]

What is going on over there? Another robbery

Australian consul-general’s home burgled in latest high-profile Hong Kong break-in | South China Morning Post

[Cho-man]

What is going on over there? Another robbery

Australian consul-general’s home burgled in latest high-profile Hong Kong break-in | South China Morning Post

If this "trend" against luxury residences continues, maybe its time for those folks to reconsider living in that part of town (or any rich district in HK, The Peak, Repulse Bay, etc)...

Which brings to mind another thing. Clearly, I have no tolerance for kidnapping, obviously it is a heinous crime that takes a heavy emotional toll on its victims, families and friends. But if some of these detached housing prices in Sai Kung drop because of a reduced demand due to perceived fear of crime, maybe some of those houses might be a little more affordable? Heck, maybe even one day within reach of us mere mortals? After all, leaving aside whether there is a real crime "risk" in that area, Sai Kung (and also Clear Water Bay) is without doubt a nicer part of town, with much needed living space, pleasant scenery and greenery. Yeah, there is the problem of commuting, but purely from a living quality of life perspective, it is no doubt better than many other urban districts in HK...

But in case anyone is wondering, no, I'm not serious in suggesting that there will be a kidnapping spree in Sai Kung or that it would drive down actual housing price there. Just some idle day dreaming of having a nice little mansion in Sai Kung, since I will have to stay put in HK for at least the next few years.

[jmbf]

And now another one!

Attempted burglary at luxury Hong Kong home near where kidnap victim released | South China Morning Post

[shri]

The intrusion happened at about 3.30am as hundreds of police officers continued their manhunt in Tai Po for six kidnappers who escaped a police dragnet in Fei Ngo Shan after collecting the ransom money.The house, which was bought by Smart Force Enterprise for HK$195 million in April last year, was also targeted in a burglary three years ago.


A police source said it was possible that yesterday's attempt was carried out by mainlanders who had just arrived in the city and were unaware of the kidnapping case.

Is it just me or does anyone else feel that the HK Police are about to stop calling themselves Asia's finest?

Rather stunning display of incompetence from both the private security (I assume there is some amount being used by Asia's billionaire class) and HK police?

How does a mansion that was just broken into, go unprotected a few days later??!?

[shri]

From the article about the Australian consul general

On April 3, a 19-year-old mainland man was caught allegedly trying to break into the Deep Water Bay home of Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing. The suspect was charged with attempted burglary and illegally entering and staying in the city.

Three days later, on April 6, there was an attempted break-in at the three-storey home of Indian consul general Prashant Agrawal in Black's Link, Happy Valley. Nothing was stolen and no one was arrested.

On January 19, two houses in Black's Link Villa, 100 metres from Agrawal's home, were burgled.
Burglars have also targeted luxury homes on The Peak and in Southern District neighbourhoods in recent months.

Lesson .. move out of houses and move into penthouses!

[Skyhook]

Interesting that it takes a few HK elite getting burgled etc for this to even headline in the news. Where were the newspapers when sai Kung/clearwater bay had a spate of home burglaries around July 2 years ago, over a 6 month period where 80 odd homes were burgled, one of them was ours, so I speak from experience.

The HK police are pretty useless, the high instance of hot burgs in the area is representative of an infective police force. Lets be honest, Sai Kung is just such an easy area to burgle. Homes are built shit, especially windows and exterior sliding doors, which can be easily removed from their crappy imprecise ( SO MUCH TOP/BOTTOM END FLOAT ) frames/mounts, making it really easy to jemmy up and lift out.

An unarmed population that cannot adequately protect itself where home invasion/intruders apply and a sleepy keystone cop style of police force, just makes the Sai Kung district a burglars paradise. Police had reports of filipino boat boys/illegal workers on construction sites in the area, who were responsible for quite a few burgs, CCTV footage confirmed that on top of the usual mainland Chinese.

[Skyhook]

They broke in through our middle floor balcony sliding door, which is our kids play room. We were home at the time when they did it, around 4ish am on a wednesday morning.

They stole all of our laptops, watches, the kids tablets, all of our mobile phones which were charging overnight, all of my camera gear ie 4 digital cameras and a HD video camera, my fave too. $160,000hkd haul in total.

Then we had a huge fight with the insurance company who initially were going to refuse to replace the laptops and flatly said no to replacing the mobile phones etc. After a massive fight I got them to pay up on the laptops, but still got f'd over the the smart phones.

Subsequently after the burglary we have gradually beefed up security of our home:

German Shepherd - CHECK who has already warded off a second attempted break in.
CCTV camera's - CHECK
Alarm - CHECK
hired a second helper - CHECK so there is somebody at home all of the time.
replaced the roof top and ground floor doors including locks, CHECK
latched and pinned bolted sliding doors - CHECK
Installed motion detectors to very powerful flood lights on the front terrace, rear terrace/back yard and down the side where our kitchen door is located. - CHECK

Police in Sai Kung & CID at Wong Tai Sin that handle the Sai Kung district, were useless, never catching the perps so I will give them a total vote of incompetence out here in Sai Kung.

WHoever mentioned the village chiefs being of any protection, has absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

[cykgary]

hope more tycoons will join or support the localists who aims to restrict the number of Mainland tourist coming to HK

[dumbdonkey]

most burglaries go unsolved around the world. hong kong is no different. dont keep valuables at home.

[hullexile]

most burglaries go unsolved around the world. hong kong is no different. dont keep valuables at home.

So where do you keep your laptops, cameras, etc.?