 China Scene: East
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-12 07:44 Prince Charming turns out to be king of thieves A migrant worker was recently sentenced to a year in prison for conning a 24-year-old woman in Shanghai. The junior high school-educated man, who has a wife and child, met Xiao Yan (not her real name) online and told her he was a Harvard graduate in the city to take care of his parents' Hong Kong-based company's representative office. He promised to buy Xiao a villa and marry her. But later, he told her his parents disapproved of their love and had frozen his bank account, leaving him with no money to return to Hong Kong. Xiao forked over 17,000 yuan ($2,500) in March, but Liu demanded more money the following month. This made Xiao suspicious enough to report him to the police. (Shanghai Morning Post) Kidnapper's crazed plan drives him to detention A passenger at Fuzhou north bus station in Fujian province tried quietly kidnapping a teller at knifepoint on Saturday morning. Onlookers at first thought it was a joke but realized it was not when police came after the assailant. The passenger surnamed Shen was out of money and could not afford a ticket home. He staged the hostage situation so police would drive him to his hometown of Dazhou, Sichuan province. An officer did put him in a car with the teller but purposefully shook the steering wheel to keep the blade away from the hostage. At the first opportunity, they opened the car door and subdued Shen. (Peninsular News) (China Daily 09/12/2008 page5) |
