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Thieves and Swindlers
Sunday, May 1, 2005-12:45 PM
It looked like someone was going to get hurt. A young kid, presumably from Xinjiang, was getting pushed around by someone I mistakenly thought was a Han Chinese. They were shouting but they weren't speaking Mandarin or Cantonese.
Eventually the kid ran off. The older guy who had been pushing him around and another guy followed him a few seconds later.
I happened to be walking in the same direction as they ran and was in the unfortunate position of observing all their suspicious behavior.
The three of them almost certainly were from Xinjiang. The two young ones looked like they were around twelve or thirteen years old. The older of the two had bleached hair that made him stick out almost as much as me.
The two walked down the street while the older one kept looking back over his shoulder. It was a bright sunny day on a moderately busy street. Didn't seem like an ideal place to commit a crime.
In the back of my mind I thought it might be unfair of me to be observing these guys so closely. I thought maybe it was the fact that they were a minority that had me on high alert.
But I knew that their behavior had made it difficult for anyone not to notice them. They were attracting attention to themselves in just about every conceivable fashion.
The youngest of the three started walking right behind a short woman with a purse wrapped around her body. He was following so closely it looked like he might trip over her heels.
There was no way he could get away with anything. The strap of the woman's purse was wrapped around her body, and it looked like she was holding it with her right arm.
The boy kept following her with the other two behind him. The oldest was still monitoring the situation behind them every few yards.
I was mad. I couldn't be sure what they were doing, but it didn't look like a wholesome activity. What should I do?
I decided it was time to prevent the possibility of anything happening. I was going to attract as much attention to those three as I could.
I shouted a few times loud enough for anyone within thirty feet of me to hear, and ran towards the the three, my flip-flops pounding the pavement.
My heart was pounding. Why did I seem it necessary to meddle in other people's affairs? Was I only going to end up making myself a target of crime? What if these three kids were indeed just out for a morning walk? In spite of those thoughts, I thought I did the right thing.
The three made eye contact with me. I looked back at them, confident that they knew I knew what they were doing. At first they tried to look shocked at what I was doing, but they weren't very convincing, especially the dim-witted one with bleach blonde hair.
The three of them walked away and I walked up to the woman they had been following. More to put on a show for the the three kids, I started talking to the woman.
I told her to be careful and watch her purse. I don't think she had any idea what I was talking about. My Chinese wasn't clear, and she had been oblivious to the situation the entire time.
A half hour or an hour later I returned to the block I originally encountered the gang on. They were still there, near the gates to a hotel that has frequent foreign guests.
I can't be sure what they were up to, but I do know crime is common in Guangzhou. Natasha's brother has been mugged; I was present during someone's failed attempt to pickpocket Natasha; I've seen guys on motorcycles grab bags from pedestrians; and I've seen street justice administered to what I assume were unsuccessful thieves.
If you come to Guangzhou, don't ignore the signs at McDonald's that warn of "thieves and swindlers".
(Footnote: Upon returning from my trip to Lhasa, I found the Russian teacher who lives across from me standing outside her door with a group of people with hammers and flashlights and other tools trying to pound open her door. What happened? Her purse was stolen by someone on a motorcyle.)
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