From: gu_jc3@stu.ust.hk (GU)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong
Subject: HK News Clippings - 6 JAN 93
Date: 7 Jan 1993 00:30:27 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

SCMP

Security at jewellery shop 'put' lives at risk' during raid

By BONNY TAM

   SECURITY installations at the Chow Tai Fook goldsmith shop angered
robbers and endangered the lives of staff and customers, witnesses
said yesterday.

   Five shop staff were pistol-whipped and beaten with a hammer while
more than 10 customers were held at gunpoint by robbers held up by the
showcases and an electronically controlled gate.

   The gang escaped with $6 million worth of gold and jewellery.

   Security guard Mr George Maiza, 55, and a member of staff, Mr Lo
Tat-kin, 34, sustained head injuries from hammer blows and were admit-
ted to Queen Mary Hospital in satisfactory condition.

   Their colleagues, Mr Chan Sun-sheung, 45, Mr Chan Shun-wah, 37, and
Mr Ho Wai-hong, 25, sustained bruises and were treated at Tang Shiu Kin
Hospital and discharged.

   A representative of the staff, Mr Donald Wong, said the masked rob-
bers rushed in and threatened to shoot anybody who got in their way.

   They made customers kneel and staff stay still behind showcases.

   Mr Wong said the shops had installed new showcases that were sealed
to allow only one hand to take few items ont at a time and a 1,000-
kilogram gate controlled electronically.

   The measures were introduced on the advice of the shop's insurance
company after a robbery in April last year.

   "The robbers were limited to snatch a few items out of the show-
cases at one time, and they got infuriated, beating us from time to
time," Mr Wong said.

   "They then tried to leave after ransacking shelves for more than 10
minutes but could not open the heavy gate. They got really fed up and
beat us again until one of my colleagues managed to grasp the device
and open the gate.

   "The new secnrity measures had actually endangered people," he said.

   "This time it was lucky they did not shoot or pull the pin of a
grenade," Mr Wong said.

   One customer, Miss Carrie Chan, 25, said she was having a necklace
done np when the robbers, masked with stockings and speaking Cantonese
with an unfamiliar ac- cent, rushed in at about 1.45 pm.

   Miss Chan said the shop was then quite busy, with 20 customers
inslde.

   "I was very scared that they were going to hurt us," she said.

   Then she managed to slip through the gate, which suddenly opened and
closed again, and hid in a boutique next door.

   They later learned that all four men had met in Lockhart Road, and
jumped into a blue Honda Civic driven by a fifth man.

   The car was found in Sports Road with a grenade on the back seat.

   Police bomb disposal officers combed Lockhart Road for the grenade
thrown at the constable.

   But, as nothing was found, detectives believe the gang may have
picked it up and lefl it in the car.

   Ms Lo Wai-ling, 20, who works in a Percival Street mobile phone shop,
said the robber who took the hostages was in his early 30s.

   He warned the policeman to stand back before he began dragging the
second hostage by the neck into the station, frightening the pedestrians
streaming in and out.

   Salesman Mr Andy Wong Siu-wah, 21, said people suddenly screamed
and hid behind ticket machines.

   "I was drawing cash from an automatic teller machine and turned
around to see two men, one armed with a pistol and carrying a bag, dash
down from the llennessy Roud entrance, across the walkway and out
through the Lockhart Road exit.

   "At first it was pretty quiet with only about 30 people on the
concourse, but as a train arrived, people came up from the platform, and
I shouted at them 'robbery above' and they hurried back down to the
platform."
Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong