Another victim robbed after massage gambit

A 68-year-old man was robbed of a HK$18,000 gold chain after a woman in her 40s invited him to go up to a flat in Sham Shui Po yesterday, with 13 similar cases happening since February.

The man, Sze, said the robbery happened after he was accosted by the woman at the intersection of Yu Chau and Kweilin streets around 10 am and invited up to a flat in Yu Chau Street.

His son called in the police around 11.12 am after Sze telephoned him.

Similar incidents have been reported over the past few months, with elderly men being robbed of valuables after massage invitations.

On June 27, a 79-year-old was lured by a woman in her 40s to a flat on Castle Peak Road in Cheung Sha Wan with the promise of massage services, but ended up being robbed of his HK$30,000 Rolex and a HK$500 ring.

On April 4, two men were robbed of gold chains by women in Hung Hom and Ma On Shan.

The first victim, an 89-year-old man, was solicited by two women in their 30s and 40s on Wuhu Street around 9am with an offer of massage services and led to the nearby Hung Wu Building.

When he reached the staircase landing on the first floor, one grabbed his genitals and the other snatched his chain, worth HK$30,000, before the two fled.

Around 6pm the same day, the second victim, a 60-year-old man, was approached by twoPutonghua-speaking women near the Heng On Estate market in Ma On Shan.

When they approached a stairwell near the market, the modus operandi was the same, with one woman grabbing him by the genitals and the other making off with his HK$20,000 chain.

Seven people - five women and two men - were arrested on April 5 and 6, with all of them being from the mainland.

Two of the female suspects were arrested when they approached male strangers near Heng On Estate in Ma On Shan on April 5. Their husbands nearby were also taken away by the police.

Another woman was arrested he same day in Mong Kok in connection with a robbery in Aberdeen.

On April 6, two more women were arrested for luring an elderly man into having lunch with them and robbing him of a gold chain in Sham Shui Po.