Hero auctioneer should consider giving up day job
Instead of running an auction house, maybe Carson Chan Kai-shun should don a cape and mask as a crime fighter. The local managing director of Bonhams helped foil a would-be robber near his Pacific Place office on Monday afternoon.
With his Clark Kent looks, Chan was standing at a bank's ATM when he heard a woman scream near the podium and ran to help. In the ensuing struggle, he and another man tackled the suspect and held him down until police arrived. It turned out the thief had a fake gun. That's quite a brave act usually performed only by guys who wear blue tights or live in bat caves.
'It was the right place at the right time,' Chan said. 'It was all reflex. My wife said I was kind of stupid. I heard the woman scream so I thought maybe he was hurting her. Another guy came from the other direction and during the chaos the gun fell out. Meanwhile, all these people were just watching and taking out their mobile cameras. The bank security didn't even come out at first.'
Amazingly, this isn't the first time he's had to play superhero in Pacific Place.
'A couple of years ago, I was running after another thief through the mall during lunch hour and again no one tried to help, even though I was yelling 'stop him' in Cantonese, Putonghua and English. Eventually he tripped and fell, but nobody helped. I think if you love this city, offer some help instead of just standing there oohing and aahing.'
