A spiked drink, a puff of dust, missing memories, and an empty bank account.
Wan Chai has been battered by a coronavirus driven collapse in tourism, and as times get desperate a succession of men have seen nights out turn into nightmares.
It took days for Stuart to recall a crucial memory. But after speaking with another victim it came flooding back: a woman trying to spark a conversation outside a bar, a man approaching wearing with a determined look.
"I thought he was going to punch me but he just blew something in my face," Stuart recalls. "I laughed. But that was it. No memories after that."
It was a breakthrough for Stuart (a pseudonym), who had been trying to figure out why post-match drinks with his cricket buddies in Wan Chai had turned into one big blackout following his encounter outside the bar.
Hours were missing alongside HK$80,000, which was taken in six separate transactions from nearby ATMs.
"It was a joint account with my missus and we have a baby on the way," the 36-year-old Brit, who moved to the SAR 18 months ago, recounts. "Police said maybe I was just drunk, but why would I empty that account? It wouldn't be worth my life doing that."
WhatsApp groups used by Wan Chai bar owners and regulars have lit up in recent months with similar stories. Most targets have no memory and awake to find accounts emptied by scammers who have drugged their unwitting victims - largely by tampering with their drinks - to keep them pliable and obtain their pin numbers.
Victims have dubbed the scam "Devil's Breath" attacks - technically the nickname for the powerful anti-nausea drug scopolamine but in this case used more as a catch-all descriptor.
Spiked drinks have previously posed a small risk in Hong Kong, but the pandemic has appears to have changed the scene.
"It's become a huge problem," says one bar owner, with many regulars becoming victims.
"The police are up and down here all night, checking our licenses, making sure we abide by pandemic restrictions," he says. "But this seems to be something they just don't, or won't, tackle."
The jump in cases tracks with a general rise in opportunistic crime as Hong Kong experiences its worst recession in decades.
Crime figures from last year showed a 26-percent increase in robberies, a 237 percent jump in blackmail and an 89 percent rise in deception.
The latter two categories include phone and online scams, which have filled media pages in recent months. Cybercrime was up 55 percent last year.
In a series of pandemic-themed reports the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime detailed how the coronavirus has transformed crime trends.
Widespread lockdowns and travel restrictions, for example, have made break-ins and international drug smuggling harder, but the pandemic has been a boon for human trafficking, extortion, counterfeiting and cybercrime.
Police and bar owners in Hong Kong say the vast majority of robberies are carried out by teams of sex workers, an already vulnerable group, sometimes with the help of male accomplices.
"We've all struggled during the pandemic and that includes the girls," another bar owner says. "That doesn't excuse the crime, but it helps explain why."
Three people, including Stuart, reported the robberies but said it was a struggle to get officers to treat them as victims.
"When I reported it the officer sighed and said he already had some 90 case files on his desk," recalls James, a 41-year-old British school teacher who had HK$64,000 lifted from his account. "I was like, 'Well now you have 91 cases.'"
All three said they struggled to get crucial data from their bank, HSBC, to give to police. HSBC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Police say such crimes has risen during the pandemic and that the force ramped up operations, including deploying intelligence teams and specialist anti-triad officers.
"We are putting a lot of resources now to fight these kinds of crimes," acting assistant district commander Glenn Ho Siu-tung says, though he concedes there may be room for improvement on how police treat victims.
"I think we will have to spend some time educating uniformed officers," Ho says, adding that drinkers need to remain vigilant and not leave out any details when reporting crimes.
Victims, meanwhile, say the trauma of what they experienced is worse than the lost money.
"It's the psychological damage it does to you," says Stuart. "You just can't fathom how you could be so compliant."
