Hong Kong police are on the hunt for two men who robbed a person of two boxes of face masks and HK$9,000 in cash at knifepoint in Kowloon on Thursday.
Ming Pao reports the victim of the robbery is a 22-year-old man surnamed Yeung who had posted online that he had face masks for sale on Thursday afternoon, and that he and the buyer agreed to meet at Hoi Fai Road in Tai Kok Tsui the same day.
When Yeung arrived at the roundabout, two buyers got into his car, with one pulling out a knife, snatching the two boxes of face masks, and taking the HK$9,000 (US$1,160) in cash that Yeung had on him. The duo then fled via a nearby pedestrian bridge.
HK01 reports that the two boxes together contained 100 face masks.
Yeung wasn’t injured in the incident, drove to a nearby housing estate called Metro Harbour View and called the police, who arrived at the scene shortly afterwards.
No one has been arrested yet, and the Mong Kok police district criminal investigation team are looking for two people aged 30 to 40, about 1.75 meters tall with short black hair. Both men were wearing face masks at the time of the robbery, while one of them wore glasses.
Crimes involving face masks and other supplies have become common over the past months amid the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier this week, a member of Cathay Dragon ground staff was denied bail after she was arrested for allegedly taking HK$3.32 million (US$427,000) from a friend for face masks she didn’t have.
Last month an Indonesian domestic worker was jailed for four weeks after admitting to stealing 5,500 face masks.
Police in February also arrested three people in connection with the Great Toilet Paper Heist of 2020, which saw a trio of men rob a delivery worker of 600 bog rolls at knifepoint amid a panic-induced shortage.
