30th September 2026 – (Macao) A 36-year-old mainland man with a robbery record robbed two mainland women of HK$21,000 at knifepoint in a hotel room, then tried to flee by swimming to Hengqin with an underwater thruster — only to be arrested the moment he stepped ashore.
Macau’s Judiciary Police said the suspect, surnamed Meng, posed as a currency changer and arranged the meeting through a WeChat money-exchange group. The victims, friends and both mainland residents, were preparing to buy property in Macau and needed Hong Kong dollars. They agreed to meet him in the early hours of 23rd September at a restaurant in a Cotai hotel.
Accompanied by a friend, the women followed Meng to the hotel room he had rented for the supposed exchange. When they asked to inspect the cash before handing anything over, he pulled a knife about 20 centimetres long from a wardrobe, brandished it and threatened to kill them unless they surrendered the money they were carrying. Nobody was hurt. After they handed over HK$21,000 in cash he fled at once, and the victims reported the robbery.
Investigators quickly identified Meng. He had converted the stolen Hong Kong dollars into renminbi and transferred the proceeds to a mainland bank account, then took a taxi to waters near the Taipa cycle track with the intention of swimming back to the mainland. To cover the crossing he used an underwater thruster to aid his swim. He reached Hengqin but was intercepted on landing by mainland police, who recovered the thruster on him. He is now in criminal detention.
The escape bid was especially brazen because Meng was already under judicial restraint. At the end of December last year the Judiciary Police had arrested him on a separate robbery charge, banned him from leaving Macau and left the case pending trial — meaning legitimate border exits were closed to him. Crossing by sea with specialised swimming gear was his attempt to slip that net.
Underwater thrusters have featured in other recent cross-border cases. Last August a mainland man trying to enter Macau with such a device was intercepted by Macau Customs and later sentenced to four months’ imprisonment. Meng’s reverse crossing — out of Macau rather than in — ended just as abruptly: from a Cotai hotel robbery to a Hengqin shoreline arrest in a single arc, with Guangdong and Macau authorities expected to keep coordinating as the investigation continues.