A Hong Kong employer has filed a report to the police alleging that her Filipina domestic worker stole gold jewelry before leaving on a trip to the Philippines.
The female employer surnamed Tong who employed the domestic worker in 2017, said they had been getting along very well and the worker had a good relationship with her son, Apple Daily reported.
Before her second employment contract started on February 11, the worker asked to be able to return home for ten days in early February. Tong agreed and bought her a round-trip ticket leaving Hong Kong on February 1.
Despite the worker’s stated plan to return on February 10, she failed to do so.
Tong’s husband became suspicious and urged Tong to check her valuables. She quickly found that all her gold jewelry, worth around HK$400,000 (US$50,955), was missing from where she stored it under a mattress.
Tong said she was very disappointed as the good relationship and the trust built up over the past two years had been destroyed.
She reported the case to the police before seeking assistance from the Immigration Department, the Labour Department and the Philippines Consulate.
Tong said the consulate did not record the worker’s personal information citing privacy issues.
On March 11, Tong was notified by the police that that some of her jewelry had been recovered from a pawn shop in Yuen Long in the New Territories.
Tong said that she wanted to share her experience in order to urge other employers to pay attention to their valuables.