Earlier this week, the case of a 21-year-old man who lost his eyewateringly expensive watch made headlines… until it was resolved anticlimactically when the man’s friend turned it into a police station. Yesterday, however, the seemingly simple case took a strange turn when it was revealed that a police officer was being investigated for carrying out a “switcheroo” and submitting a counterfeit Rolex as evidence after “losing” the authentic watch.
(Are we supposed to believe this thing’s invisible, or something? Or does it just entrance anyone who comes into contact with it, like the ring of Sauron?)
It all began on Sunday night, when a young engineering project manager surnamed Chung (which ironically means “clock”) left his phone and Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, worth HKD420,000 (nearly US$54,000), wrapped in some clothes on a bench at a Sham Shui Po playground while he played football with friends. At 11pm, when the game had finished, Chung found that his watch had disappeared and called the police.
Early Monday morning, just six hours later, one of Chung’s teammates returned the watch to Cheung Sha Wan Police Station and said he had taken it by accident. Chung accepted the explanation and said he wouldn’t press charges, as he didn’t believe his teammate had any malicious intent. Open and shut case, right?
Wrong. Yesterday, local media outlets reported that the duty police officer who handled Chung’s watch apparently filed a counterfeit watch away in the evidence room instead of the real deal. A police source told Apple Daily that the officer claimed to have “lost” Chung’s watch after it was turned in, and replaced the item with his own counterfeit Cosmograph Daytona in the hopes that no one would notice.
How then, did his cunning plan get foiled? Apparently, he confessed. Apple Daily reports that a senior police officer asked the duty cop about Chung’s case and the officer admitted that he’d “misplaced” the item. The watch was eventually found by yesterday evening, when Chung visited the station at 7pm to give his statement on the matter.
Chung brought the Rolex certificate of authenticity, which matched the serial number on his watch. However, he told reporters from HK01 that the police never notified him that there was any improper handling of his beloved accessory. Police told HK01 that there had been “improper handling of evidence” by an officer in a theft case and an arrest had been made. The suspect has been released on bail, but an investigation into the duty officer by the Sham Shui Po District Crime Squad is underway.
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