WELLINGTON: A bag containing NZ$1 million (£425,000) has gone missing at Hong Kong international airport. Police are treating the bag’s disappearance as a theft.
A total of 13 bags filled with cash were being transported from New Zealand to the Bank of China, but one bag went missing in a restricted access area of the airport.
Security footage shows three of the bundles falling out of a cargo trailer as it rounds a corner, according to Chinese state media.
When workers realised some ten minutes later that the bags were missing, they returned to find two of the bags on the ground, but the third gone.
All 13 bundles, totalling NZ $10 million, were accounted for when the Cathay Pacific flight they were transported aboard landed in Hong Kong last Friday.
The airline has confirmed that the money was lost.
“Cathay Pacific transported a valuable cargo shipment last Friday night to Hong Kong,” read a statement. “Upon arrival, it was transferred to the cargo terminal where part of the shipment was found missing. As the case is under police investigation, we are unable to provide further details.”
G4S International Logistics, a UK security firm, was contracted to deliver the money to the Bank of China, but the company said it has no access to the area of the airport in which the bag was lost.
It remains unclear whether someone was able to get away with the NZ$1 million, and whether the suspected theft was coordinated ahead of time.
