Claw machine arcade ransacked in Tai Wai burglary, owner offers $100,000 bounty

A claw machine arcade located in Tai Wai was burglarized on Thursday, resulting in the theft of approximately HK$70,000 worth of plush toys, including high-value Jellycat plushies. Outraged by the brazen nature of the crime, the business owner has launched a HK$100,000 bounty to help bring the perpetrators to justice. 

The total damage would have been far worse had the owner's wife not been monitoring the surveillance feed from home around 3am yesterday, spotting two intruders systematically clearing out the store. She used the shop's remote audio system to shout at the suspects warning them that the police had been called. Startled, the burglars fled with four large striped storage bags rather than stripping the entire store bare.

The business operator, who manages eight venues across the city alongside business partners, noted that shoplifting is common where perpetrators frequently employ creative methods ranging from heavy-duty shears to powerful magnets to extract prizes from individual machines. However, he expressed shock at the sheer aggression of this recent raid, which involved crowbars and industrial-sized bags aimed at wiping out the entire inventory. 

Despite losing dozens of items, he observed that the thieves seemed indiscriminate, taking several cheaper along with the premium collectibles. He added that he plans to upgrade security measures, though he acknowledged the difficulty of outsmarting increasingly determined thieves.

Law enforcement authorities confirmed receiving a report from a 31-year-old manager in the early hours of the morning after he was alerted to the incident via live video feeds. Initial police assessments indicate that over 80 plush toys were stolen, including items from both the Jellycat and Disney collections, with an estimated total value exceeding HK$60,000. 

The incident has been officially classified as theft, and investigations are ongoing as officers work to identify and locate the suspects involved.\

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