Like Jerry, I saw a woman (supposedly a Uyghur* pikey) with a fake baby strapped to her back, with badly dyed hair, working the street in Beijing. I just happened to be crossing the road behind her as she was preying on a woman who left her handbag open on her arm after fishing out her mobile phone.
The woman casually strolled up behind her, copped a feel, found the wallet, and was in the process of removing the cash from it. I hugged her from behind (or ‘battled her into an arm lock’ perhaps sounds more manly!) which alerted the other woman. The thief shouted abuse at me, palmed the money to her mate (who I hadn’t noticed, despite his matching badly dyed hair!) and dropped the purse on the floor, suggesting that it had just fallen out of her bag and she was trying to give it back. Her abuse towards me was really powerful, I started worrying that perhaps the baby wasn’t a stooge and I had mixed up the whole scenario. Basically, I wasn’t expecting her to go on the offensive.
I didn’t speak Chinese to explain the situation or to defend my position, so just pointed at the thief said ‘ta buhao’ or something and walked off with the adrenalin pumping. The woman picked up her wallet and walked away. I felt it wasn’t the worse scenario because the woman got her wallet and ID card etc back and may be a bit more careful in the future. A thanks would’ve been nice though! I saw the same duo operating on a footbridge a few days later with different coloured badly died red hair. Still with the fake baby on her back. Still with the blurry CCTV channel up in the sky, and below, the organised beggars sat in bandages, earning their dinner and their bosses a new SUV.
I don’t think I would do it again unless I had some local back up, for fear of being accused as the villain, but then when the adrenalin kicks in at the spur of the moment, I can see meself chasing villains through building sites like the opening to 007 as Chris regailed at the top!
* my Beijing friends explained that Uyghur gangs come out of the woodwork before CNY etc and go on the rampage in their desperation to send some hand-earned back to the families, as they’ve lost the rest of their savings gambling. Not that I want to suggest that non-han racism is rife in this harmonious society.
As I say I don’t think I would act the martyr again, but I have put myself in it again and again. I knocked into an old woman as we both using a pedestrian crossing (I was on a bike). It was basically her fault for suddenly changing direction straight in front of me. But still I immediately jumped off the bike to check if she was ok, it’s just basic instinct isn’t it. Of course that immediatly apportions blame directly on my back. Luckily she wasn’t hurt and didn’t make anything of it apart from moaning about her dirty trousers. But I could’ve found myself in that whole compensation game.