A member of the public recently sent a letter of appreciation to officers of Kwun Tong Division Property Office for their unfailing efforts in trying to track his whereabouts for almost one year in order to return a cash box containing about $100,000 and gold ornaments to him. In recognition of the officers' good work, he donated $20,000 to the Police Children's Education Trust.

Kwun Tong Division Administration Support Sub-Unit Woman Inspector Aneka Wong So-fan, who oversees Property Office operations, said that solving the case took almost one year because of limited information regarding the owner's whereabouts.

"The case was reported to us by a flat owner in Ap Lei Chau in June last year. We went through all the lost property reports but none of them matched this case. Besides, no one responded to our newspaper advertisements," said Officer-in-charge of the Property Office Carmen Li Ka-man.

"Our initial investigation revealed that a former tenant who had already moved out of the unit in mid-March last year was most likely the owner of the cash box, therefore we launched an intensive enquiry and went through all possible sources of information in order to locate him."

"We encountered many difficulties as our sources provided no clues as to his new address. However, we never gave up and eventually we were able to contact his friends and with their help were able to contact him in June this year,"

"The owner did not realise that he had left his cash box at his previous residence until we contacted him. He was very surprised at the lengths we had gone to in order to locate him."

Clerical Assistants Shirley Lam Shui-yi and Fiona Fong Yuek-ngor were thrilled to see their work recognised by the public.

"Some people may consider our job boring but I think our job is quite challenging as we have to figure out the quickest way of locating property owners. Every case is a learning process for us," enthused Ms Lam.