Father and son thwart gang after stealthy call for help
A couple escaped five days in the clutches of a pyramid selling gang on Saturday in Xinyu, Jiangxi province, with a little help from an unexpected source - a 3-year-old boy.
Zhu Hexin, director of the city's Xiannvhu Fire Brigade, took his son to dinner at a small restaurant last Thursday. They picked a table next to six young people, two men and four women.
While waiting for their food, the little boy, Xiao Ye, wandered about the restaurant, approaching the different tables. When he ran by the table next to where he and his father were sitting, one of the women stopped the boy, grasped his little hand and let him go.
Zhu thought the young woman was just playing with the child, but then Xiao Ye came back to his father and handed him a slip of paper with the following message written on it: "I work for Shenzhen Bus Group, please call 110 to save me and my boyfriend."
Zhu was surprised, but the veteran soldier quickly calmed down and decided to look into the situation.
He kept on feeding his boy while observing the people silently. The six people were talking in a strange accent as they ate.
He noticed that four other men were keeping watch at the door, and the woman who had passed the note to Zhu was eyeing him nervously.
He weighed his options - he wanted to help, but also wanted to keep his son safe. Zhu eventually decided to move Xiao Ye away from the table. He stopped at the bar and called a fellow firefighter, surnamed Yuan, to ask for help and then called the police, all while keeping an eye on the people.
Soon after, three men forced the woman who had passed the note and another woman to get in a taxi. The other five waited for another cab.
That is when Yuan arrived and gave his car to Zhu so he could tail the first bunch of people while Yuan watched the people who stayed behind. He jumped in another taxi when they finally left.
Xiao Ye once again played a key role. The boy held a phone to his father's ear so he could stay in contact with Yuan. The situation got complicated when the gangsters noticed Zhu and tried to loose him.
Thanks to the efforts of Zhu, Yuan and Xiao Ye, police were eventually able to raid the illegal business den the group was using, rescuing all who had been swindled and taken into custody. The gang would coerce its victims into doing marketing for them.
Yao, the woman who passed the note, had been ensnared by the gang on March 22. The group forced her to ask her family for money. As a condition she asked for a dinner with her boyfriend, as the gang had separated them once they arrived in the city. Her plan was to figure out a way to escape with him.
When she saw Zhu in his uniform at the restaurant, she decided to put the note into the little boy's.
The heroic father and son team saved her from danger.
China Daily
(China Daily 04/04/2008 page6)
