Thief Holds Car Side Mirrors for Ransom in Shanghai

Thief Holds Car Side Mirrors for Ransom in Shanghai
Jul 12, 2016 By eChinacities.com

In a recent string of unusual thefts, a thief stole side mirrors from cars all over Shanghai and left ransom notes for the owners.  

Shanghai police reported that this past April, a man named Mr. Huang had parked his Volkswagen Touraeg SUV overnight in a parking lot on Guiping Road in Xuhui. At noon the next day, he found that side mirrors had been stolen from his vehicle. The thief had left a sticker on his right car door that read, “Mirror: 17 182 108 ***.”

Mr. Huang called the number. The thief said that if he paid 1,400 RMB, his side mirrors would be returned. The thief provided a bank account number for Mr. Huang to transfer the money. An hour later, the thief called Mr. Huang and told him where he had hidden the side mirrors. Mr. Huang retrieved the side mirrors and reported the incident to the police.

Shanghai police said that there had been a string of similar incidents throughout the city this month. There had been 51 similar reported incidents in eight different districts in Shanghai involving over 200,000 RMB.

In a different case, a man was caught on surveillance camera riding a scooter attaching a note to an Audi Q7. He then pried both mirrors off the car.

A suspect named Wang was arrested on suspicion of extortion. The case is currently under investigation.

Source: thepaper.cn

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Keywords: Shanghai car Shanghai thief Shanghai

2 Comments

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tokagesa

I am wondering how they can get away so easily by using a bank account. I know they can easily open one with a fake ID, but can't the police freeze it right away? Maybe probably those scammer open a new one each time they scam someone.

Jul 13, 2016 13:20 Report Abuse

Englteachted

That would require getting out of the comfortable chair.

Jul 13, 2016 13:56 Report Abuse