A friend of mine was at a KFC in Beijing. She returned from the bathroom to find her purse was gone. She called the manager. The police came in 15 minutes. At the police station, she saw security footage, which showed that her purse had been taken by an 11-year-old girl. “Heart-breaking,” said my friend.
Really?
This would happen in any big city in America. Your friend should have kept her purse on her person.
Seth: My friend is from South Korea, where she says this would never happen. For all I know, you’re right that this would happen in any big American city. I would be interested in the results of experiments — leaving purses unattended, seeing what happens — to find out how often this happens in different places.
Here’s a somewhat related article about Japanese honesty in turning-in lost items:
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/world/never-lost-but-found-daily-japanese-honesty.html
Honestly, what she did was kind of dumb. She cannot travel. Sorry.
If she routinely leaves her purse unattended while she’s in the bathroom, it’s remarkable to me that having her purse stolen is remarkable to her.
@Mac/Antonio/Alex:
Aside from illustrating the concept of blaming the victim, did it ever occur to you that the friend’s response to the crime could be the impetus of Seth’s post? Empathy vs anger???
@Antonio:
Aren’t you making an assumption that she’s traveling? I don’t see anything specifying visitor or resident. Perhaps she’s a native and this post is highlighting the point I made above.
Really?
This would happen in any big city in America.
It’s no less heartbreaking for being common!
Here I see the story of mine!
I live in China since I was a 13-year-old kid and it was the first time happening to me.
I came back within a minute after I left. When I came back, the girl was still nearby, looking at me pointing at the chair where I put my purse, asking people if they had seen someone taking it, and finally calling the manager. Then she ran outside of KFC.
It happend on Sunday, but till Friday I couldn’t even know if the police checked the other footage or not, so I went to the police office yesterday. At there, what I could hear them saying that the girl cannot be a student so that it was impossible to find the girl (Why this excuse?)
But “fortunately”, I persuaded a police officer, so he and I went to the mall(where KFC is) and checked the other video footage.
The girl left the KFC and went into the mall, walked a litte, met her mother. And most surprisingly, she, with her mother, took the elevator and went to the ice rink! The police and I were so shocked to see this, because the entrance fee and the rental fee was not so much reasonable for average Chinese people (about $10 for 90 minutes) For more, we also found that she was holding her ice rink membership card in her hand… She seemed to be so excited going skating since she never stopped smiling as if she had never even touched my purse.
It is heartbreaking that not only had I to say goodbye to my purse, and all the important stuffs like credit cards, and my driver’s licence, this little innocent-looking girl who seemed not at all poor but rich took my purse, and seemed to have no sense of guilty or something. And I don’t think I will be able to understand why the police made a such excuse.
Well if she is a native her lack of care with her own stuf is even more remarkable. She cannot really treval; certainly not US; maybe (with luck) to Scandinavia in the low season.
how did she know the child was 11?
Seth: it’s an estimate.