A 22-year-old man who beat a staff member at a Central jewelry store yesterday afternoon and stole HKD88 million in diamonds – half of which he swallowed — has been arrested. The actual arrest wasn’t particularly hard for the police though, as the suspect actually set off the store’s burglary alarm, locking him inside the shop with his victim, and had to be freed by authorities.
The man, identified as a Jordanian by the name of Mousa, was found in the store room of M&B Diamonds on Wellington Street at around 2:30pm yesterday by police responding to a security alarm. A 38-year-old female shopkeeper surnamed Chu was also found at the store, bruised and unconscious.
According to Apple Daily, the 22-year-old entered Hong Kong on Wednesday on a tourist visa and had been talking to M&B Diamonds’ owner, a 32-year-old Israeli man surnamed Sheinfeld, about “business” for a while over Instagram.
Mousa first visited the Central shop at 11am yesterday, while Sheinfeld was present, and stayed for roughly half an hour, during which he was shown millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds. Police said in a press conference that they believed Mousa was casing the shop during this initial visit.
Later, at about 1pm, the suspect re-visited the shop while Sheinfeld was away and only two female shopkeepers were present. The 22-year-old lingered until 2pm, when one of the shopkeepers left to eat lunch. Once he was alone with Chu, Mousa reportedly beat the woman until she told him the company safe’s combination, soon after which she fainted.
The suspect then opened the safe, and emptied it of 17 diamonds and USD8,600 in cash, worth a combined USD11.4 million (HKD89 million), but triggered the shop’s security alarm in the process. As the store automatically went into lockdown and the security company alerted police, Mousa reportedly went into the store room with a glass of water and swallowed nine of the diamonds.
After police and Sheinfeld arrived on the scene at about 2:30pm, they found the remaining eight diamonds and cash on Mousa. He was taken to Queen Mary Hospital alongside Chu after claiming to feel unwell.
Upon reviewing the shop inventory, Sheinfeld reported that a further nine diamonds worth around HKD46.85 million and weighing a combined 180 carats were still missing, which CCTV footage and an X-ray scan confirmed were in Mousa’s belly. Cheng said the diamonds were “as big as eyeballs” and would have been “very painful to swallow”.
The hospital will reportedly give Mousa laxatives and consider surgery to retrieve the diamonds. Both he and Chu are reported to be in stable condition.
