Hong Kong police are poring over surveillance camera footage in an effort to identify a burglar who broke into the home of a multinational company director in the upscale residential area of The Peak.
A source familiar with the case said a preliminary investigation on Wednesday suggested several handbags were stolen from the cloakroom of the master bedroom in the Guildford Road home.
“It’s not known whether other valuables were stolen because the tenant was out of town,” the insider said.
Officers were called to the first-floor unit at around 6.44am when a domestic helper found the premises had been burgled.
The helper found suspicious footprints and signs of ransacking in the master bedroom and then discovered several handbags missing, according to police.
The woman then alerted a security guard who filed a police report soon after.
The source said an initial investigation showed the burglar broke into the flat by prising open the bedroom window, and officers were checking surveillance camera footage to uncover further evidence.
The break-in came three days after police carried out a four-day air, land and sea operation on Hong Kong Island to help prevent burglaries over the summer while some residents were away on holiday.
Police mounted a similar operation in the upscale residential areas of The Peak and Mid-Levels between July 12 and 14 after a house on Mount Kellett Road, located in the former, was burgled.
A window was broken and there were signs of ransacking in the master bedroom of the house on July 10, according to the force. It was not known what items were taken because the helper’s employer was out of town.
Police handled 684 reports of burglary across the city between January to June, a 19.6 per cent increase from 572 cases logged in the same period last year.
The city also recorded 5,156 cases of violent crime in the first half of the year, an 8.3 per cent year-on-year rise compared with 4,759 reports in 2023.
Authorities installed 15 sets of surveillance cameras in Mong Kok in March as part of a plan to have 2,000 set up by the end of this year, with a focus on densely populated zones and high-crime areas.
