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Guangzhou Drunk Drivers Extorted in Staged Collisions

Posted: 06/6/2014 12:29 pm

drunk driving broken vase guangzhouThe “broken vase tactic” (碰瓷) is a notorious practice in which traffic collisions are staged in order to extort money. Feared by many Chinese drivers, this unscrupulous tactic has now found itself a new mark in Guangzhou—the drunk driver.

The public security bureau of Baiyun District, in conjunction with the Guangzhou police, have caught three members of an extortion ring that targeted drunk drivers by waiting for them at the front of restaurants, reports iFeng.

Two cases have come to light that showed this gang in action.

On March 6, Mr Chen and a client were out for a late snack near Wanda Hotel in Baiyun District; both men had been drinking alcohol. At 10pm, Chen got into his car and had started driving 300 meters towards Airport Road when he got into a collision with a black Toyota Camry. Exiting his car, Chen noticed that the front bumper of the Camry fell off. Chen later told reporters, “However, my own car didn’t have any problems, and that’s how I knew I was the victim of a ‘broken vase’ trick.”

The four male occupants in the Camry all accused Chen of being drunk and demanded he pay RMB 30,000 in compensation. Chen refused, and called for the police. Chen had a sobriety test when the police arrived; judged to be legally drunk, Chen was charged with drunk driving. However, the driver of Camry continued to ask for compensation, suing Chen for RMB 9,000.

In another incident, Mr Lu, a company manager, was out dining at an eatery near Qifu Road on March 8 and had also been drinking. At around 10pm, after driving 100 meters from the restaurant, Lu was hit from behind by another car. When Lu got out, he saw that it was a black Toyota Camry with multiple people in it who all accused him of drunk driving.

Lu tried to flee the scene, but was closely followed by the black Camry. However, Lu lost control of his vehicle at Guangyuan West Road and collided with a flower pot road divider. Lu was beaten by the occupants of the Camry and demanded Lu pay RMB 60,000 in compensation. Ultimately, they alerted police who charged Lu with driving under the influence of alcohol. Due to a fight that broke out between the two parties, Lu and the driver of the Camry were taken back to the police station.

There, police identified the driver of the black Camry as Lan X Rong*, 30 years-old and originally hailing from Yingde, Guangdong. Lan was discovered to have been involved in over 10 accidents from November to December last year that were all collisions with drunk drivers.

Lan confessed to targeting drunk drivers to extort in a plan that started in the second half of 2013.

* X signifies information that was not published in the report

Photo: iFeng

 

Haohao

Shenzhen Driver Taunts Police Online, Police Post His Arrest Online

Posted: 05/28/2014 2:38 pm

This is a great story – a fable, if you will – told entirely in Weibo posts.

weibo shenzhen police post Weibo is a place where people like to have fun. The Shenzhen Traffic Police are just like you and me: they share their love of GIFs while trying to admonish the dangerous activities they depict, and reply to funny questions with funny answers.

bmw no zuo no die Weibo user MrCharlesChen is a also a guy who likes fun. And that’s what he was having when he posted a picture to Weibo at midnight on May 25 of himself driving with a beer can in his hand. He asked:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

MrCharlesChen
Is drinking and driving at the same time against the law? @Shenzhen Traffic Police Have you caught any “tigers” tonight? [coylaughing.emo]

Yes. The account he was asking was the Shenzhen Traffic Police.

And while the Shenzhen Traffic Police has a history of joking around, they didn’t do so this time. Instead, they sent a short, terse message:

Shenzhen Traffic Police:
Put the beer down, and drive safely!

Such a reply didn’t deter MrCharlesChen, who posted the reply:weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

MrCharlesChen:
I’m going to open another one [elatedopenmouth.emo]

Netizens got in on the fun at this point. They combed through MrCharlesChen’s Weibo account, and found the following gem in his photo album from March 19, 2013:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

MrCharlesChen:
These past few days, I ran through about twenty red lights before I was finally caught @粤B374CC How’s this license for you? The next time you see this license plate, you’ll know it’s me [openmouthlaughing.emo]

Another photo found in MrCharlesChen’s album showed he was unrepentant towards his lawnessness by posting a screenshot of the driving violations he had incurred:weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

CharlesChen:
That’s fine, I still have six points (left on my license)

 

Sensing a change of merriment, MrCharlesChen changed his username to the very aptno zuo no die (classic)“, and deleted all the content in his Weibo account. Unperturbed, the Shenzhen traffic police said that they were going to find him all the same:

bmw no zuo no die

搞怪GIF图:
This guy changed his (username)

深圳交警:
(Despite) changing a username, we still have to investigate.

MrCharlesChen finally signaled that he had enough fun:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

MrCharlesChen:
I was wrong. [tearspouringdown.emo] I am a stupid cunt.
[tearspouringdown.emo]

However, the fun continued for netizens and police as they collaborated to find more information on MrCharlesChen:

Mr Chen-Jun:
Going to help out this so-called fellow classmate of Shenzhen University to remain at the back of the class…

Shenzhen Traffic Police (reply):
Thank you very much (for your contributions), we have already made screenshots.

The Shenzhen Traffic Police found that long list of traffic violations MrCharlesChen had boasted about:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

Shenzhen police put a stop to all the fun on May 26 by issuing a demand to MrCharlesChen to surrender himself at a traffic police station. And they did it by sending him a Weibo post:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

(Car with license plate 粤B374CC has made 16 driving violations) Through an investigation, it has been determined that Weibo user @MrCharlesChen (who has changed his username many times, and deleted his entire account) is a suspect wanted in connection with driving violations related to a BMW X1 vehicle with the license plate 粤B374CC that was first registered on March 5, 2013. To date, this vehicle has accrued a total of 16 violations, ten of which occurred in Shenzhen (nine counts of illegal stopping, one time for speeding) and six other violations occurring out of province. At present, ten points have been deducted from your license, leaving only six points left. According to traffic regulations, please hand over your car for confiscation and inspection.

But netizens would do one better and perform a human flesh search that turned up MrCharlesChen’s real name, work unit, picture, and residential address.

Shenzhen Traffic police were very amenable with their ultimatum by issuing helpful reminders:

Shenzhen Traffic Police:
If you do not arrive by 2pm, we will come to your residence. If there is a need, we will ask for the help of the “Uncles” in CID (Criminal Investigation Department).

And with the clock ticking:

Shenzhen Traffic Police:
One hour left.

MrCharlesChen finally did turn himself in. And, the police celebrated it with everyone online by posting his arrest on Weibo:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

And then they posted all of his personal credentials online:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

Of course, they censored anything personal about him but that was irrelevant, as his identity was already made public by the human flesh search.

Later that day, MrCharlesChen was very ponderous with his first post to Weibo ever since deleting his entire Weibo account:

MrCharlesChen:
Cherish life, don’t drink and drive. Living is not easy, cherish what you have when you’ve got it.

Yes, it would be much more poetic if he didn’t plagarize most of it. Outside in the parking lot, Shehzhen Traffic Police finally saw the car that they’d only seen online:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

But upon opening the trunk of the car, they found yet another familiar sight:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

That’s right, MrCharlesChen had driven to the police station to surrender himself and his car with two cases of beer in the back. He does like that Harbin beer, we see.

The moral would be very clear at this part of the story, except that it isn’t over.

With all of this having happened back in the distant past, meaning Monday of this week, some netizens still had lingering doubts. So one user recently posted this question to Shenzhen Traffic Police:

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

chenruihang:
“Uncle” traffic police, I want to know if drinking (soda pop) in the passenger seat is against the law

Shenzhen Traffic Police:
That’s fine, enjoy your drink. (Just remember,) too much will adversely impact your health! Just remember to do better than that brother from tomorrow.

Uh, “tomorrow”? They mean “yesterday”, don’t they?

weibo fable no zuo no die charleschen drinking and driving taunting police fail

Shenzhen Traffic Police:
Sorry, we meant ‘yesterday’

So while this may have been a very simple moral of “stupid is as stupid does”, the true moral of this fable is Weibo itself: no one ever forgets anything online. Not your hideous shame, your regretful mistakes, and not any one of your speiling mistakes.

Photo: Guangzhou PSB via Weibo (2, 3, 4, 5), Shenzhen Evening Report via Weibo

Haohao

Trending on Weibo: Cop in Guangzhou pulls a gun on drunk driver in a Porsche

Posted: 02/1/2013 9:29 am

One topic is running wild on Weibo right now, and it has to do with Guangzhou’s finest.

Around midnight two nights ago, Guangzhou traffic cops began patrolling and checking for drunk drivers in Pearl River New Town (Zhujiang Xincheng) in Guangzhou. Around 2 am on Thursday morning, a dark red Porsche Cayenne stopped about 100 metres away from the traffic police.

When the police walked up to the vehicle, the Porsche abruptly threw it into reverse and began moving away. There were policemen at the end of the road trying to stop the car, but the Porsche showed no indications it would slow down and tried to escape.  The policemen then pulled his gun from his holster, pointed it at the driver, and ordered him to stop.

According to witnesses, the driver was so drunk that you could smell the alcohol emanating from the vehicle. The driver obeyed the order to stop and did a breathalyzer test, which showed he was inebriated. The police then took away his driver’s license for six months.  Needless to say, the driver wasn’t impressed and his friends in the car said he lives abroad, and was unaware of China’s strict drunk driving laws.

The driver is around 40 years old.

The news story has seemingly set Weibo on fire, with millions of comments and re-posts.  Sina launched a pool asking netizens if traffic police should be able to point their guns at drunk drivers.

Over 90% of respondents (at the time of this writing) say they have absolutely no problem with that, with less than 10% saying it is “too scary” and unnecessary. So far, almost 24,000 people have taken part in the survey.

Source: Nanfang Daily

Haohao
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