Missing girl rescued after being trapped in parcel locker

Erin Chan

A 16-year-old girl who had been missing for three months was found yesterday after she had to be rescued from a parcel-collection locker.

She was playing hide-and-seek with friends when she accidentally locked herself inside a digital parcel locker used by delivery companies at a shopping mall in Kowloon Bay.

The girl was rescued by firemen called to the second floor of Ching Long Shopping Center at 6am after a security guard reported the incident.

Firemen broke open the locker door to reach the girl inside. She was unharmed but upset. She was taken to Ngau Tau Kok police station for investigation and family members were asked to pick her up.

It is unclear how long the girl had been trapped inside.

The girl, Leung, a secondary three student who lives in Wong Tai Sin with her parents, had been reported missing in late December.

Leung was playing with a group of friends at the time, and crawled into an "extra large" compartment of the locker that measured 87 by 45 by 35 centimeters for fun.

However, a strong wind blew the door of the locker shut.

The EF Locker is a 24/7 self pick-up service offered by SF-Express, which has more than 1,000 such facilities across Hong Kong.

Customers have to enter a verification code and to pay by Octopus card before the doors can open for retrieval of parcels inside. Once the customer shuts the door, the compartment will resume its lock mode.

A spokesman for SF-Express said yesterday that it is carrying out a further investigation of the incident.

"From our initial understanding, it is suspected that two people discovered a compartment of the locker that was not entirely locked, and one of them crawled into it and later its door shut itself," the spokesman said.

"We attach great importance to the incident, and we have put a notice of safety tips near the locker, as well as is considering the possibility of enhancing the surveillance on whether the doors of the locker have been closed properly."

The spokesman also appealed to customers to ensure that the doors of the locker have been closed properly after they retrieve their parcels.

"The EF locker is only for customers to retrieve their parcels. Please do not use it for other purposes to prevent incidents," he said.

Some people claimed that they could not close the doors properly even after retrieving their orders.

erin.chan@singtaonewscorp.com