SHANGHAI: Former table tennis world champion Jiang Jialiang and his actress wife are suing the two companies that built and manage their luxury apartment block over a robbery that cost Jiang five of his medals.

The Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court held the first hearing yesterday.

In the evening of August 16, the alleged robber, Xu Axiao, from Zhejiang Province, sneaked into Jiang's building and then climbed onto his balcony through a window in the hallway. Xu allegedly grabbed cash and other valuable items, including four of Jiang's world champion medals, a medal that the State Council awarded Jiang for his hard work and jewelry Jiang's wife, Wu Yufang, wore when she received a best actress award.

World championships

Jiang, a native of Guangdong Province, won six world championships in the 1980s, and his Shanghainese wife, Wu, won the national best actress award in 1985. The family was traveling when the theft happened.

Xu was arrested in connection with the theft. Investigators found that Xu had had a job installing air-conditioners, so moving around on high floors was not difficult for him. They said he was involved in more than 30 thefts in the block and entered the apartments through the fire escape or windows in the hallway.

Some of the jewelry that had been stolen was recovered at Xu's residence.

However, Xu said he threw away the medals because they were not made of real gold. He said he could not remember where they were.

The loss caused the couple mental anguish, according to Wu Dong, the attorney representing Jiang and his wife.

"Picturing his medals in some dirty garbage bin made Jiang very, very sad," Wu Dong said.

"And living in a place that a thief was able to enter so easily made them feel insecure. The two companies' faulty design and careless management made the theft possible," Wu Dong said.

The couple is seeking 50,000 yuan (US$6,250) for economic losses and 100,000 yuan compensation for mental anguish from Shanghai Zendai Property Management Co Ltd and Shanghai Zendai Property Ltd.

Security door fails

"The security door of the building did not work that day, and the management company did not fix it in time," the wife said.

"The security guards don't check the identity of visitors carefully. Also, the management company forbade us from installing windows on our balcony, which would have kept the thief from entering so easily.

"The lamps in the block are dim, which also helped conceal the thief. And the distance between the passage window and the balcony is so close that climbing across was easy."

The hearing was not open to the public yesterday and the defendant refused to comment after the hearing. No verdict has been reached yet.

(China Daily 01/09/2007 page5)