We were having our leisure walk in one of the busiest and known shopping district in Shenzhen when 3 men mugged my son. We were actually a group of five walking aimlessly to get to the subway in a jampacked Dongmen Street. I was near my son and was having a nice chat when suddenly a man from behind dropped a key. He was in the act of picking it when I saw that he was holding my son's left leg instead and that was when I heard my son shouted that somebody had snatched his mobile phone from his jean's right-hand pocket.
It was so fast that we barely saw what happened. Fortunately my son's celfone was attached to a neck chain. The chain made it visible so my daughter who was walking together with our 2 lady friends about a meter behind us saw the neck chain hanging from another man's arm folded underneath his jacket. My daughter pointed and shouted that the man standing between us was the culprit. In an instant, I approached the man and asked him to give it back..
We were so scared but I had to face the man or totally lose the celphone. By then, the man probably noticed that almost all the spectators from the street has been looking at him readily gave the celfone to me and walk away as if nothing had happened..
The muggers were composed of 3 well-dressed men in their early 30's who deem to walk among the crowded streets and pretended to have dropped a key. They were actually well dressed as if just came out from the office. The first man will drop a key from behind to distract the victim, the other one pickpockets while the third person will distract you pretending that he's holding the loot. This 3rd man will actually pretend to walk and run fast at you to make the victim think that he's the one who did it. So if the police happen to arrive at the scene, there will be no evidence to prove the charges.
That Saturday night is one of the scariest night we all had. It happened yesterday but we still felt the fear up to now..
We understand that pickpockets and muggers are everywhere in big cities like Shenzhen. The best way to do is to avoid crowded areas and if possible never to carry anything valuable when you're just having a leisure walk. We love Shenzhen but we cannot deny the fact that it is saturated with negative entities such as muggers, pickpockets and thieves. Shenzhen is a special economic zone which attracts some of the best and some of the worst kind all over China.
Another lesson learned..
