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Hong Kong boy, 10, arrested over HK$3.7 million robbery of luxury watch store
Form One pupil was allegedly paid HK$5,000 to take part in crime, investigation reveals.
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Hong Kong police have arrested a 10-year-old boy on suspicion of taking part in a HK$3.7 million robbery (US$472,560) in which he allegedly used a sledgehammer to smash the display counters of a luxury watch store, the Post has learned.
Officers also arrested a 14-year-old boy during a raid on a guest house in Yuen Long on Wednesday evening, bringing the number of suspects taken into custody over the crime to four.
The 10-year-old Form One pupil was allegedly paid HK$5,000 to join the smash-and-grab gang that raided the shop in Tsim Sha Tsui and fled with 20 luxury watches on Monday, a source familiar with the case said.
“The investigation revealed that he skipped school on that day and joined the gang to commit the robbery,” the insider said.
Police officers escort the suspect to VIP Station in Tsim Sha Tsui to re-enact the robbery
He added the boy was in his school uniform at the time, but was wearing either a jacket or a pullover.
The boy, who is about 1.7 metres (5.6 feet) tall and weighs 60kg (132lbs), was arrested by officers when he left his school on Tuesday evening. The Post learned that he came to Hong Kong from Pakistan to join his parents in 2018.
Plain-clothes officers escorted the suspect, his identity hidden by a black hood, to the VIP Station store on Canton Road on Wednesday for a re-enactment of the crime.
The area was cordoned off by police for the re-enactment, which was carried out shortly after 4.15pm. The boy was wearing a blue T-shirt and black trousers and a pair of white sports shoes at the time.
About an hour after the re-enactment, officers from the Kowloon West regional crime unit arrested a 14-year-old boy during a raid on a guest house in Yuen Long.
The source said he believed the teenager was one of three robbers who stormed the watch store. “The boy allegedly carried a knife and grabbed luxury watches from the damaged counters during the raid,” he added.
In the raid, a trio of robbers ambushed the store at 3.40pm on Monday, threatening staff with knives, with one of them using a sledgehammer to smash display counters. The group grabbed 20 watches worth about HK$3.7 million before fleeing in a Toyota seven-seater driven by a fourth suspect.
About 90 minutes after the heist, officers detained a 19-year-old man near Kowloon Peak in Sai Kung before finding a backpack with the stolen watches in the bushes nearby. The force said all the items had been recovered.
Police said they believed the teenager was one of the three robbers.
On Monday night, officers arrested a 17-year-old student in Sau Mau Ping.
Another source on Tuesday said the teenager was the younger brother of a man sought by police over the robbery, but he told officers he did not know the other suspect. He was detained on suspicion of misleading the force.
As of Wednesday afternoon, officers were still hunting his older brother in connection with the robbery. Officers believe the man was the driver of the getaway car used in the robbery on Monday.
On Tuesday afternoon, police found a car believed to have been used in the robbery in an outdoor car park in Kowloon Bay. Officers seized a knife and two hammers from the vehicle.
Detectives from the Kowloon West regional crime unit are handling the case.
The Juvenile Offenders Ordinance defines a child as anyone under the age of 14. A young person is aged 14 and 15, while anyone 16 or above is no longer considered a juvenile offender and will be tried in court as an adult.
Under the ordinance, no person below the age of 10 can be found guilty of a criminal offence. This is known as the age of criminal responsibility.
Between January and June this year, police handled 59 robberies, a 43.9 per cent increase from the 41 cases logged in the same period in 2022.
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