Hong Kong police arrest 2 allegedly caught on camera sniffing neighbour’s shoes

Prosperland House at Affluence Garden in Tuen Mun, where two men were arrested for allegedly sniffing their neighbour’s shoes. Photo: Google

Hong Kong police have arrested two men on suspicion of loitering after they were allegedly caught on camera sniffing their female neighbour’s high heels and trainers in a housing block in the New Territories.

Police said the two suspects, aged 30 and 31, lived in the same building, and were picked up on Tuesday and Wednesday after their actions were captured by surveillance cameras on the 21st floor of Prosperland House at Affluence Garden in Tuen Mun last month.

“So far, our investigation does not suggest the two suspects knew each other, and there is no evidence to indicate the two men knew the victim or the tenants of the targeted flat,” Inspector Leung Kwun-ho of the Tuen Mun criminal investigation unit said on Wednesday.

Hong Kong restaurant owner accused of passing off squid for abalone

The victim was a 27-year-old woman who lived in the development with her younger sister and mother.

The case came to light after the victim was informed by a neighbour on the same floor that a surveillance camera installed outside his flat had captured a man standing outside her door and picking up her sport shoe to take a whiff.

The woman then installed a surveillance camera of her own, which subsequently captured another man who stopped outside her flat to smell her shoes, including a pair of high heels, on several occasions.

Crime squad officers began investigating on Monday after the concerned woman made a report to police.

During the arrests, police seized clothing said to match that worn by the suspects in surveillance camera footage. Photo: Handout

After poring over surveillance camera footage, officers arrested the two men on Tuesday and Wednesday. Police also seized clothing the two suspects were allegedly wearing at the time of the incidents. Loitering is punishable by up to two years in jail.

According to police, one of the men worked in a pharmacy, while the other was unemployed.

“The investigation suggested one of them has a fetish for sniffing women’s shoes,” a police source said.

As of 5pm on Wednesday, the two suspects were still being held for questioning and had not been charged. Detectives from the Tuen Mun criminal investigation unit are handling the case.