CCTV footage shows 4 armed robbers hold up store in Hong Kong at lunchtime, escape with 70 watches
- Suspects carrying what appeared to be weapons threatened staff before shoving watches into bag and escaping in getaway car
- Police are searching for the brazen gang who did not fire any shots during the incident
Seventy watches estimated to be worth about HK$13 million (US$1.7 million) were stolen from a store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping district at lunchtime on Wednesday, sparking a police manhunt for a gang of robbers.
According to the force, four perpetrators with one of them carrying what appeared to be a handgun made off with the valuables from Tse’s Collection, a ground-floor shop at the junction of Lockhart Road and Canal Road East, soon after 1pm.
Chief Inspector Cheung Ka-wing of the Hong Kong Island regional crime unit said on Wednesday that three of the robbers were carrying what appeared to be a pistol, a knife and a hammer during the raid.
He said the four men rushed into the shop and used the weapons to threaten two employees who were forced to surrender the key to the showcases.
“[The robbers] stayed in the shop for about three minutes before running out of the shop,” Cheung said, adding that they jumped into a black getaway car on Jaffe Road.
The 70 stolen watches, which included brands such as Rolex and Audemars Piguet, were worth about HK$13 million, police said on Thursday.
An online video showed only two employees – one man and one woman – were in the shop at the time of the heist.
