Police are on the hunt for a man dubbed “The Rat” who is suspected of smashing up a woman’s secondhand goods stall late last night and attacking her after she refused to pay him a triad protection fee.
According to Ming Pao, about HK$20,000 (US$2,550) worth of goods were damaged at the stall, which was owned by a 38-year-old woman surnamed Keung.
Keung has been selling secondhand goods at the junction of Pei Ho Street and Tai Nan Street for two or three years, and said things had gone smoothly until recently, when a man who called himself “The Rat” turned up at her stall, and demanded she pay him protection money, or “to dei” — a fee collected by triad gangs from business owners within their turf.
Keung refused to pay, and just after midnight this morning she received a message from a friend saying that her stall had been ransacked.
She went to the stall and found that a metal box containing an antique radio and a number of jade items was missing. Then “The Rat” appeared, allegedly repeating the demand for protection money and attacking her by throwing some of the debris from the stall at her and pushing her to the ground.
Keung called for help and “The Rat” fled the scene.
Keung was taken to the Caritas Medical Centre with minor injuries to her head and the lower part of her body.
Apple Daily reports that that police are looking for a pudgy local man, about 1.65 meters tall, with short black hair.
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