Hong Kong police on the hunt for three suspects in brazen theft of ‘HK$22 million necklace’ from jewellery store in Tsim Sha Tsui

A jade necklace said to be worth about HK$22 million (US$2.8 million) was stolen in a brazen robbery at a jewellery store in Hong Kong’s busy Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district on Monday, sparking a citywide police search for at least three suspects.

Officers were called to the ground-floor Emperor Watch and Jewellery shop on Canton Road near the junction of Peking Road at 12.10pm after two men made off with the necklace from the shop, located just opposite Harbour City shopping centre.

According to police, the perpetrators jumped into a getaway car driven by a third man.

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An initial investigation found that the two non-Chinese men had entered the shop at around noon, posing as customers and asking a staff member to show them a jade necklace.

“After the employee presented the pair the necklace, one of the robbers drew out a knife and threatened the staff member with the weapon while the other snatched the item,” a source said.

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He added that the pair then ran out of the shop and jumped into a black car.

As of 1pm, the search for the robbers was still under way. According to police, no one was injured in the incident.

Another source said police were told the necklace was worth HK$22 million and officers were still confirming the exact value of the item.

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Police handled 41 robberies across the city between January and June this year, down 39 per cent from the 67 cases logged in the same period last year. The detection rate was 66 per cent.

There were 381 reports of burglary in the first six months of the year, down 48.6 per cent from the 741 in the same period in 2021. A total of 123 of the cases were solved and 139 people were arrested – a detection rate of 32 per cent.

The force in July said the detection rate for robberies and burglaries hit a record high since half-yearly figures were recorded from 1977.

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