--- title: Rugby Sevens: 'Powerfully Built' Female Thieves Lure Drinkers With Sex description: Hong Kong police warn of gangs of brawny women preying on drinkers at the city's famous annual rugby tournament canonical: https://time.com/41310/rugby-sevens-hongkong-african-women-thieves-gangs/ author: Michelle Arrouas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-28T08:44:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:17.104Z og:title: Rugby Sevens: 'Powerfully Built' Female Thieves Lure Drinkers With Sex og:description: Hong Kong police warn of gangs of brawny women preying on drinkers at the city's famous annual rugby tournament og:url: https://time.com/41310/rugby-sevens-hongkong-african-women-thieves-gangs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8925e920832dbd7c/698687c1d0b6f2960f3037b2/rtr1r4hc.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: To match feature HONGKONG-ANNIVERSARY/BRITISH og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rugby Sevens: 'Powerfully Built' Female Thieves Lure Drinkers With Sex twitter:description: Hong Kong police warn of gangs of brawny women preying on drinkers at the city's famous annual rugby tournament twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8925e920832dbd7c/698687c1d0b6f2960f3037b2/rtr1r4hc.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Gangs of 'Powerfully Built' Women Are Mugging Tourists on the Streets of Hong Kong by [Michelle Arrouas](https://time.com/author/michelle-arrouas/) ## Michelle Arrouas Mar 28, 2014 8:44 AM UTC  Expatriate men have been targeted by female thieves in bars in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong Expatriate men have been targeted by female thieves in bars in the Wan Chai district of Hong KongBobby Yip—Reuters by [Michelle Arrouas](https://time.com/author/michelle-arrouas/) ## Michelle Arrouas Mar 28, 2014 8:44 AM UTC Groups of black female thieves are prowling Lockhart Road, Hong Kong’s lively red-light strip, looking for expatriate men to rob, the [_South China Morning Post_](http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1458666/rugby-sevens-revellers-warned-powerfully-built-women-who-prey) reports. The area’s streets are particularly busy this week, thronged with fans from all over the world attending the city’s famous Rugby Sevens tournament. A party atmosphere prevails and binge drinking is the norm during “Sevens week.” The women, hailing from an unspecified African country, are described as “powerfully built” and standing about 1.8 m tall. They pretend to be customers at bars, where they strike up conversations with their victims. They then flirt or offer sex, get the men drunk and subsequently mug them either on the street or in their hotel rooms. One unfortunate man was thrown into a trash can by the women when he started struggling after realizing he was getting mugged. Another man, an Australian, had about $1,300 stolen when he took three African women to his hotel room after getting drunk with them in a bar. The police say many cases are going unreported because the victims are ashamed or because they are only in the city for a few days. Rugby Sevens visitors have been warned to be on their guard. \[[_South China Morning Post_](http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1458666/rugby-sevens-revellers-warned-powerfully-built-women-who-prey)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/41310/rugby-sevens-hongkong-african-women-thieves-gangs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/41310/rugby-sevens-hongkong-african-women-thieves-gangs/"},"headline":"Gangs of 'Powerfully Built' Women Are Mugging Tourists on the Streets of Hong Kong","datePublished":"2014-03-28T08:44:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:17.104Z","description":"One luckless expatriate was picked up and thrown into a trash can by brawny muggers after trying to put up a fight","url":"https://time.com/41310/rugby-sevens-hongkong-african-women-thieves-gangs/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","Hong Kong topic","theft"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8925e920832dbd7c/698687c1d0b6f2960f3037b2/rtr1r4hc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Arrouas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michelle-arrouas/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8925e920832dbd7c/698687c1d0b6f2960f3037b2/rtr1r4hc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"To match feature HONGKONG-ANNIVERSARY/BRITISH","caption":"To match feature HONGKONG-ANNIVERSARY/BRITISH","creditText":"Bobby Yip—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/41310/rugby-sevens-hongkong-african-women-thieves-gangs/","name":"Gangs of 'Powerfully Built' Women Are Mugging Tourists on the Streets of Hong Kong"}}]}] ```