In what seems like one of the weirdest petty crimes we’ve heard about this year, a man was apparently robbed of his clothes before finding the thieved threads on fire outside of his flat. Talk about putting the arse in arson.
The incident took place just after midnight on Monday at Kwai Luen Estate in Kwai Tsing. A man surnamed Ng claims he was accosted by a stranger, who pressed something hard against his back and ordered him to strip, The Sun reports.
Ng complied, and handed over all the clothes he was wearing. The thief apparently spared him his underpants, perhaps in an effort to disprove the proverb, “beggars can’t be choosers”.
The bizarre bandit then legged it towards the staircase, according to 28-year-old Ng, who returned to his flat and called the police.
Not long afterwards, Ng says he noticed smoke wafting into his apartment from the staircase outside, and found his T-shirt and jeans aflame.
The fire was swiftly put out, and classified as theft and arson by the police.
The weirdness just isn’t over, apparently, because police officers said that it was actually the second fire set in that building within 24 hours. At around 1pm on Sunday, a 36-year-old woman surnamed Lee found a metal can wrapped in newspapers on fire near the building’s rubbish disposal.
Initial investigations show no natural cause for the fire, which suggests it was arson.
Kwai Tsing District’s Crime Squad is currently investigating both cases, and have not ruled out the possibility that they are connected. We’ve got so many burning questions…
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