Highway robbers show leap of inspiration

Reuters ^ | Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:43am ET

[sully777]

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing police have detained a gang of thieves who pulled off a high-speed, highway heist straight out of a Hollywood action movie.

Police patrolling a Beijing freeway saw several people "surfing" on top of a van as it pulled alongside a truck loaded with cargo, the Beijing News said Friday.

"The men leapt from the van onto the truck's trailer and started throwing back bags of a white-colored substance" into the moving van, the paper said.

After several kilometres, the men leapt back on to the van and sped away. Police later intercepted the van, the thieves and a one-ton cache of polyethylene, used originally in making hula hoops, worth more than 10,000 yuan ($1,250).

The newspaper did not say how the thieves managed to grab their loot undetected by the driver.

The polyethylene grab was not the first of its kind -- police have reported several incidents of leapfrog larceny on Beijing's highways in the last couple of years.

[sully777]

Pictured is a typical Chinese truck driver trying to make a living.

[Izzy Dunne]

a one-ton cache of polyethylene, used originally in making hula hoops

Beware of counterfeit hula hoops on the black market...

[martin_fierro]

"The men leapt from the van onto the truck's trailer and started throwing back bags of a white-colored substance" into the moving van, the paper said.
...Police later intercepted the van, the thieves and a one-ton cache of polyethylene, used originally in making hula hoops...

"UNNNGH"

[isthisnickcool]

Does anyone have any idea what this will do to the hula hoop futures market!

[gcruse]

Well, thank Fu you posted a picture of some Chinese truck driver. The article isn't complete without it. /snark

[sully777]

Well, thank Fu you posted a picture of some Chinese truck driver. The article isn't complete without it. /snark


Don't mention it. Some are visual thinkers.

Asian ping.

[AZLiberty]

The newspaper did not say how the thieves managed to grab their loot undetected by the driver.

I suspect some complicity, though I notice that the van pictured doesn't have rear-view mirrors.

[sully777]

The newspaper did not say how the thieves managed to grab their loot undetected by the driver.

I suspect some complicity, though I notice that the van pictured doesn't have rear-view mirrors.

---

No, that is a stock photo of a typical chinese trucker, not the actual driver Note: Pictured is a typical Chinese truck driver trying to make a living.