Trending in Beijing: Stolen Melons, Heroic Cat Rescue Mission
The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this? Trending in Beijing is a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
Who stole my watermelons?
A Watermelon farmer by the name of Hou woke up to find two giant holes on the rooftop in his greenhouse on a Saturday morning only to find that almost 400 watermelons had gone missing. Saddened by the theft, the farmer said that he treats the watermelon crop even better than his own kids.
Hou told local media outlets that the thieves would break watermelons open to see which ones were ripe and then decide which ones to target.
The Weishanzhuang Police Station in Daxing was assigned to the case and the investigation shows that Hou wasn’t the only one whose watermelons had been stolen, with two other farmers whose melons also went missing in the same manner.
The police made a rough estimate that there were about 3 thieves who used tools reserved by the farmer to transport melons to their vehicle and then drove it away and that the suspects chose to commit the crime in the early morning and were very familiar with the surrounding environment.
After some investigation, the police managed to track down Li and Yang, both of whom lived in a village 15 kilometers from where the crime took place.
As it turns out, Yang is a delivery man who walks past the melon field daily on his way to work. Knowing it won’t take long for the watermelons to be put on the market, Yang and his friend Li hatched a plan to steal the watermelon when it got dark. Apparently, their partnership was quite successful, with almost 4000 kilograms of the crop stolen overnight.
As of yet, there's no word of what came to be of the missing melons, but let’s just keep our fingers crossed that his crop will stay safe for the next crop season!
Dancing grannies give Gaokao examinees a headache
You might think that the dancing grannies are among the most innocent demographics in the city, but this week one troupe drew sharp criticism as the city's attention turned to the Gaokao.
The non-stop noise from the group's dancing angered students who were attempting to take a rest between testing sessions during what for many of them amounts to the most important exam of their life as it will determine which university they can attend.
Apparently undeterred by the needs of the examinees, the grannies kept dancing from dusk to dawn despite their proximity to the testing stations.
One commenter on Weibo said: “The whole thing should stop if it disturbs others. Square dancing is fine so long as it doesn’t bother other people! One person’s happiness cannot be based on another person’s pain!”
Another comment read: “The government needs to put a stop to this blatantly noisy behavior! Why should public spaces be occupied by square dancing? Why are the surrounding people forced to listen to the music of square dancing? We want legislation, especially for square dancing in residential areas!”
Will this lead to legislative red tape for the dancing dama? We can't say for sure, but if they pull a stunt like this again, they certainly won't be doing themselves any favors in the court of public opinion.
Fireman rescued cat stuck in a steel cabinet
In a scene that could have easily been inserted into a montage of heroism, Firefighters in Beijing's Dongcheng district were called to rescue a kitten stuck under a steel cabinet.
A fireman got down on his belly, carefully squeezing one of his arms into the narrow crack, trying to grab the cat. He had to do it in a cautious manner so that the kitten wouldn’t be scared.
The crowd standing by even suggested chiseling a huge hole into the cabinet. Some bemoaned that the affectionate little thing was so silly that he could not even find his way out of the mess he made for himself.
In all, it took the fireman a full hour before he managed to yank the cat out. He then gently put the cat in his arm. The kitten was later taken to the woman who called the police.
We are just happy that after a long haul, the kitten finally got his freedom back!
READ: Trending in Beijing: Beijing's Poop Bank, Fake Officer Facetimes the Real Police
Images: Baijiahao, Suining Newsnet, Weibo
