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HONG KONG: A brazen Hong Kong thief stole a collection of stamps and calligraphy worth US $ 500 million in a daytime robbery, a police source said on Wednesday (September 16).
The thief struck an apartment of Chinese collector Fu Chunxiao in the bustling Kowloon district and took just two hours to steal the staggering loot, the source told AFP.
According to the South China Morning Post, the stolen goods were worth HK $ 4 billion ($ 516 million) and included calligraphy of Chairman Mao Zedong, five high-value old stamps and revolutionary items from mainland China.
Fu, a member of the Hong Kong Philatelic Society, was in mainland China at the time of the Sept. 10 robbery, said the police source, who asked not to be identified.
The thief entered the 16-story residential building, opened an iron gate and went through a wooden door to enter the apartment, before leaving by the same route with the goods.
The SCMP quoted a source as saying that the value of the stolen items emerged after Fu’s daughter arrived in Hong Kong to assist in the police investigation.
The valuables were removed from a locked drawer in the apartment, the source told the newspaper.
