5 Pinoys lose valuables to jailed Repulse Bay thief

The intense summer heat prompts many people to go to Repulse Bay beach

By Vir B. Lumicao

A 29-year-old Chinese man was jailed for eight months on Friday, Aug 3 after he pleaded guilty in Eastern Court to five charges of stealing the properties of Repulse Bay beachgoers who included five Filipinos, three of them tourists.

Lo Kam-fuk, a construction worker and HKID holder, was sentenced by Magistrate Peter Law after admitting to stealing various items between Jul 21 and 31 this year.

His first victims were tourists Sebastien Zoe G. Rodriguez, 17; Mark Francis Almonte, 22, and Ian Jeric Gatmaitan, 23, who went swimming near No.1 observatory at Repulse Bay Beach on Jul 21.

They placed one Nikon camera, one Gopro camera, a pair of sunglasses, on G-shock wristwatch, a white and brown waistbag, a Philippine passport, a Security bank credit card, a BDO debit card, an iPhone 7 mobile phone and $700 cash in Sebastien’s green backpack before they went into the water.

When they came ashore around 5:10pm, they found the backpack gone, and immediately reported the loss to the police. They had all since returned to Manila.

At about 7pm on Jul 24, Merly B. dela Cruz, 50, and her friend Nora Berondo, 49, Filipinas who both held HKIDs, also lost a blue handbag containing their belongings near No. 3 observatory at the same beach. The bag contained two brown wallets, two Hang Seng Bank cards, a wrist watch, a pair of earrings, a ring, $580 cash, a HKID card, another blue bag, as well as a Sony and Honor mobile phones. 

The thief struck again around 7:30pm on Jul 28, this time near No. 4 observatory, and made off with one black rucksack containing $400 cash and a Samsung mobile phone  owned by Kwok Chi-hang.

On Jul 29, Lo returned to the beach at 5pm to steal again, but the blue bag he took from an “unknown person” contained just a pair of sunglasses, five keys and one lipstick.

He went back to the beach near No. 2 observatory at 8:05pm on Jul 31 and stole a rucksack containing two black wallets, $200 cash, 63 yuan, a driver’s license, a bank card, two Netherlands passport and an iPhone 6 mobile phone belonging to Dutch tourists Johanes S. Mulder, 19, and Floris M. Hagedoorn, 21.

That was Lo’s last outing, however, as a police officer who was staking out the area intercepted and arrested him.

The court was not told if any, or all of the missing items, had been recovered.