Text messaging, thieves, and the Chinese...

[fajrdrako]

This NPR story interested me:

January 23, 2007 · A teacher in China had her bag stolen, losing her cell phone, credit cards and lots of cash. Instead of calling police, a Chinese news agency reports, the woman sent text messages to her phone. "Keep the (money) if you really need it," she wrote, "to err is human. Correcting your mistakes is more important." After 21 messages, the thief returned the bag, the money and a note begging forgiveness.

Trying to look for more details, I found this news item from 2003:

Woman Trapped Mobile Phone Thief By Asking For A Date

A Chinese woman trapped the man who stole her mobile phone by ringing him up and asking for a date. The mobile phone was in her handbag, which was stolen from the balcony of her Beijing apartment. A few weeks later she rang the number out of curiosity and a man answered. She pretended to be a friend of the phone's former owner, and struck up a conversation with the man as if he too was a friend of the owner. She then started exchanging flirtatious text messages with him before eventually suggesting they go on a date. To her delight, the man agreed to let her visit his home, so she called the police who arrested him as he waited for her at a bus stop. He now faces charges of stealing a mobile phone, a handbag and about ?00 in cash.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Interesting approaches. Good that they had positive results. Maybe they can have the same success(or better) over here?

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

Aw. The second story only shows that Chinese thieves seem to be a little dim. Whoever steals a phone around here... well, the first thing they do is dump the sim card. (If nothing else, it is possible to trace the sim card, with enough will... and sufficient technology)

And the first story is really sweet :)

[femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com]

Wow... smart woman!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Makes me think of Veronica Mars!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

One would like to think. I suspect crime and its consequences are pretty much the same everywhere.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

the first story is really sweet :)

I thought so. A teacher who is good at teaching, and a criminal with a conscience!

[femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I doubt it. Most of the thieves here are junkies.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know the statistics, but I'd guess that's pretty much true everywhere too.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

They don't tend to have a conscience about anything. They just flog things asap for a fix.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was listening to a news item this morning about how in Iraq, priceless artifacts stolen from museums and archaeological sites are being sold in the street for a tiny fraction of their worth. It was heartbreaking.