2 Hong Kong robbers attempted to pull off a $25 million heist - with a transparent blue water gun

• Two men attempted to pull off a multimillion-dollar heist in Hong Kong with a water gun.
• Staff at a moneylending firm called the robbers' bluff when they saw the blue plastic toy.
• The Hong Kong police arrested a 27-year-old man at the scene and are looking for his accomplice.

Two men attempted to pull off a $25 million heist in Hong Kong, but the staff at the moneylending firm they were trying to rob called their bluff - because their "weapon" of choice was a transparent blue water gun.

The South China Morning Post reported that an unnamed 27-year-old man was arrested at a loan outlet run by Promise, a finance company that gives out cash loans. The authorities are searching for his accomplice, a man in his 30s.

The SCMP spoke with a police source who said the staff members knew the weapon was a plastic toy based on its coloring and material, but alerted the authorities by pressing a panic button anyway.

Chinese media outlet Sina News wrote that the attempted robbery happened at 11:51 a.m. local time, at the finance company's San Fung Avenue branch, a ground-floor location at Sheung Shui Town in Hong Kong's New Territories.

HK01 News, a local TV station, reported that staff at the outlet saw the younger of the two men stride toward a female staff member and ask her to hand over 200 million Hong Kong dollars ($25 million). There was a heated conversation between them, after which the two men fled the store.

The store's employees told HK01 News that the duo returned minutes later, after which the 27-year-old leaped onto the counter. The employees said in their accounts that he then grabbed a ballpoint pen and yelled, "You b----, you called the cops!" while trying to stab the female staff member with the pen.

The SCMP reported that no money was taken, and that staff at the Promise outlet weren't injured.