Hong Kong police are searching for a middle-aged man in connection with false claims on social media that dozens of boxes of nappies temporarily left in a lift lobby had expired and were up for grabs.
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The 38-year-old owner of a baby product store who left the goods in the lobby filed a police report at 5.40pm on Saturday, after a friend alerted him to the social media post.
The prankster allegedly took a photo of the nappies in the fifth-floor lift lobby of Golden Dragon Industrial Centre Block 3 in Kwai Fong and posted it to a Facebook group, saying that they had expired and were “free for the taking” before Monday.
Twenty-four boxes, worth around HK$7,000 (US$900), out of 66 had gone as of Saturday.
The shop owner subsequently clarified on social media that he had been “pranked” and appealed for the return of the goods.
He said on Saturday night that 90 per cent of the lost boxes had been recovered and he would leave the rest for police to handle, stressing that the nappies had not expired.
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“We made a mistake too, we left the stock on the fifth floor because our warehouse was full,” he said.
Police have classified the case as theft and are searching for a man in his fifties in connection with the incident, after having looked at CCTV footage.