Notes » January 2010

Once A Gangster ...

When you're a wheelchair-bound criminal sentenced to prison for almost four decades, and you won't get out until you're 69 years old, an additional six month sentence for assault doesn't mean much.

Notorious gangster Yip Kai-foon became legendary in 1989 for an infamous escape that embarrassed those in charge of Stanley Prison. During year four of an 18-year bid for firearms offences, Yip faked appendicitis to be taken to the hospital, and after conning the guards into removing his handcuffs so he could use the washroom, promptly broke a glass bottle, threatened the guards to create an opening, ran outside and then jumped into a private vehicle, holding the bottle against a boy's neck while forcing the father to take him to Aberdeen. After stealing the man's clothes, Yip boarded a bus and disappeared.

He showed up a short time later with a small gang armed to the teeth and began knocking over jewelry stores. During getaways Yip would fire an AK-47 into the air for effect. Hong Kongers nicknamed him the "King of Thieves". After a series of high-profile robberies, in 1996 Yip got caught in a gun battle with police, during which he was shot three times and which paralyzed him for life.

In 1997 he was convicted of several crimes including escape from custody, arms and ammunition possession, resisting arrest with a firearm, and explosives possession with intent. A 30-year sentence was tacked onto the original 18-year sentence he began serving in 1985, but that was reduced on appeal to 36 years.

Since then Yip had been mostly quiet, until he tried to stab a prison officer in the neck with a ballpoint pen during treatment of a wound in 2009, again at a hospital. Yip has complained of mistreatment by guards; perhaps this was his way of demonstrating his frustrations.

So what if he gets a little extra time, it's not as though he'll return to robbing jewelry stores when he's released.

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