- Officers find glass door prised open at home on Mount Kellett Road in second break-in in an upscale area in four days
- Domestic helper was present at time of incident – stolen items remain unknown
A citywide manhunt was under way on Monday for a burglar who ransacked a luxury home on The Peak while a domestic helper was inside.
Police were called to the Mount Kellett Road residence at 10.15pm on Sunday when the property's 59-year-old security guard noticed a man suspiciously roaming around outside.
The man, wearing dark clothes, fled before police arrived. Officers combed the area, but arrested no one.
Police said a glass door had been prised open and the property was ransacked.
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It was not yet known what valuables had been stolen because the helper's employer was out of town.
It was the second break-in in an upmarket area of Hong Kong in four days.
On Thursday, police were called to a luxury home on Deep Water Bay Road to investigate a burglary in which a safe was stolen. Police could not determine what valuables were in the safe because its tenant was out of town.
The safe had been hidden in a bedroom wardrobe. A domestic helper found the safe missing and alerted a security guard who called police.
About four months ago, valuables worth HK$400,000 (US$51,000) were stolen from two safes that were prised open in another house on the same road.
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Police registered 786 reports of burglary in the first six months of 2019, down 2.7 per cent from 808 during the same period of 2018.
Numerous break-ins have been reported in upmarket areas, such as The Peak, Repulse Bay, Kowloon Tong and Deep Water Bay in recent years.
In October, a burglary was foiled at the home of Arthur Kwok Chi-shun, the former commander of the Auxiliary Police Force, on The Peak. The robber set off a security alarm and fled without stealing anything.
Before being appointed the city's justice minister in 2018, Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah and her husband Otto Poon Lok-to became victims of burglary when their adjacent homes at Villa De Mer in Tuen Mun were burgled on Boxing Day in 2016. More than HK$3 million in cash and valuables were stolen from two houses.
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