Pickpockets caught in bid to flee back across border

Two mainlanders were arrested at Lok Ma Chau on Monday night over an attempt to pickpocket a woman eight days ago.

The two, aged 26 and 48, have been charged with attempted theft and will appear for mention West Kowloon magistrate's court today.

They are alleged to be part of a three-man gang that tried to pickpocket a woman in Tsuen Wan on August 21.

Two of them tried to shield with umbrellas the attempt made by a third man, who opened up the woman's backpack in a failed attempt to steal things.

The woman lodged a report with Tsuen Wan police around

5.40 pm last Monday.

The incident on Sha Tsui Road was captured by a closed-circuit television camera, with the footage going viral.

They fled when it became apparent that the victim had sized up the situation from a reflection outside a beauty salon.

Officers also seized at Lok Ma Chau the clothes and the umbrellas the two had used in their attempted theft.

Officers reminded people to pay extra attention on the streets as police have recently noticed an uptick in the number of cases involving similar techniques.

"The thieves would commit the crime in crowded shopping locations, and also seek out victims and follow them on quiet streets, and use items to cover up their actions," police said.

Facial recognition technology has been widely adopted at border crossings, including at Lok Ma Chau, since 2021, with travelers able to pass by looking at cameras in the contactless e-channels.

Francis Fong Po Kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, told The Standard that high quality of surveillance cameras these days made it "technically feasible" to identify suspects recorded in video footage and match it with those taken at contactless e-channels.

"Indeed all our faces are recorded in the Immigration Department's database as we have just changed our new ID cards," he said.

He cited a mainland arrest in May of a female suspect, who was picked up at Haikou airport before her trip to Hong Kong to watch a concert. "But it depends on how detailed the Hong Kong database is and whether authorities will enable this function," he said.