New Culture View
May 14, 2009

A Changchun man lost a large sum of money to a mob of greedy passers-by, reports the front page of the Changchun-based New Culture View.

The man, whom the newspaper identifies by the name Yang, has been living in the rented apartment in Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province, ever since he graduated from university last year. His salary is less than two thousand yuan a month, so he has little to spare after the rent is paid. Yang thought that owning his own place would make his life easier.

When his mother withdrew 20,000 yuan, she was giving her whole life's savings to her son. With his mother's help, Yang eventually had enough to pay a 28,000-yuan down payment on a small apartment.

Yesterday, Yang locked the money in the top case of his electric bicycle and went to the real estate sales office. However, when he arrived and opened the case, a sudden gust of wind blew the cash away and sent it flying everywhere.

People who saw the money stopped what they were doing and gathered around. Most just picked up some bills and left. Out of the more than ten people who picked up bills, only a woman voluntarily returned 200 yuan.

Yang noticed a bus driver who had pulled over his bus to join the mob. When he was about to leave, Yang followed him to the bus, and pleaded with him to give the money back. The driver reluctantly returned the money, mumbling, "there were so many of them. Why me?"

By the time Yang got off the bus, with about one thousand yuan retrieved from the bus driver, all of the other people had already disappeared, taking with them a total of 5,200 yuan.

In the sidebar, a gunner who shot a man dead and stole his 340,000 yuan from a bank in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province on March 31 was shot three times and subdued by police after he opened fire on them on May 9 in Feixi, Anhui Province.

The photo on the cover tells another story about a robber who was caught by police in Changchun yesterday.

The man stalked a 13 -year-old girl to her home, where he tied up all the family members and threatened to hurt the girl if they refused to comply. When he started to stab the girl, her father, with hands still tied up, jumped up to fight him and eventually chased him out of the house.

The man confessed to the police officer that he had prepared for the crime for three months, learning from Internet games.

In the top headline, "Shandong Influenza A (H1N1) Case Confirmed," a man hospitalized in Jinnan, Shandong Province, after returning from Canada has been determined to be the second confirmed case of H1N1 in mainland China, after the first was reported in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on May 11.