Hong Kong police seek man accused of using key to steal HK$10,000 from arcade gaming machines
Hong Kong police are searching for a man who emptied about HK$10,000 (US$1,275) out of four deposit boxes at a claw machine shop after using a key to open them up. The force said on Sunday that the store owner, a…
Source: South China Morning Post · September 27, 2026 at 2:02 PM · AI-assisted report
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HONG KONG, TAI KOK TSUI ROAD, MONG KOK, 27 SEPTEMBER 2026 —
Hong Kong police are searching for a man who emptied about HK$10,000 (US$1,275) out of four deposit boxes at a claw machine shop after using a key to open them up.
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The force said on Sunday that the store owner, a 46-year-old man surnamed Cheung, had filed a police report at around 11.10am after witnessing the theft via surveillance cameras in the shop at 159 Tai Kok Tsui Road.
Cheung said he saw a man in his thirties use a key to open deposit boxes in four claw machines and make off with the money. Police are currently working to identify the man and determine how he came into possession of the key. CCTV footage circulating online shows a man in a black cap and T-shirt with white shorts and shoes entering the unstaffed claw machine shop at around 7.35am and scouting the area.
The man, who appears to have a tattoo on his right arm, then pulls out a bunch of keys from his pocket and tries using one of them to open a claw machine’s deposit box. After the first key fails, he tries another and successfully opens the drawer, pulling out the deposit box and pouring all the money into a black bag.
He repeats the process at three other claw machines using the same key, but fails to open a fifth one. He subsequently leaves the shop, with the whole process lasting less than 90 seconds. The case has been classified as theft and is being handled by Mong Kok police district’s duty investigation team.
Last week, police arrested three men suspected of using crowbars to steal popular Jellycat dolls and other plush toys worth about HK$70,000 from a claw machine shop in Tai Wai to resell them.