Robber Chose to Rob a Woman’s Box of Masks Instead of Her Purse

In this time of crisis where the Wuhan virus is rapidly spreading, it seems that our most valuable item is no longer the money or the credit cards in our wallets, but rather, our surgical masks.

Image: Giphy

No, I’m not kidding. 

Surgical Masks > Money?

A Hong Kong netizen recently shared on Facebook about an incident that happened to his mother.

According to the post, his mother had gone to a store in Hong Kong to buy a box of surgical masks. As everyone is trying to take precautionary measures to protect themselves against the highly contagious virus, there was naturally a very long queue at the store.

Image: NJ (Image used for illustration purposes only.)

Nevertheless, his mother queued patiently and she managed to buy a box of masks when it was finally her turn.

Image: SCMP (Image used for illustration purposes only.)

Exiting the store with her purse in one hand and the box of masks in the other, she happily walked towards her home, when all of a sudden, a robber stops her.

A Strange Robbery

At that point in time, millions of thoughts probably flashed through her mind.

Will I get hurt? How much money do I have? Am I really going to lose all of that? But it’s definitely much better than getting hurt, right? And at least, I did get to buy the box of masks to protect myself against the virus.

However, instead of taking her purse like the other robbery cases that we’ve heard for many years, he took her box of masks and ran off.

The netizen said in his post that he wanted to warn others of such cases and to advise everyone to not just keep their valuables out of sight, but also to ensure that they don’t expose their boxes of surgical masks to potential criminals.

He’s Not The Only One

After his post was shared, many expressed their shock over the incident, with some of them even chipping in to share their similar experiences.

Apparently, a few of them had their hand sanitisers stolen from their bags while some said that they’ve heard of others stealing masks.

It is quite baffling that the robber only took the lady’s box of masks, but she was lucky to not have been hurt by him or lose any valuables.

It is sad that people resort to stealing from others to protect themselves instead of showing care and concern for others during this time of trouble.

Hopefully, this incident is just a one-off thing and it doesn’t happen again.