Last Year in Reality 2014

January Mon 6

Such Tunnel Wow A 5-year-old Corgi escapes from its temporary home in Mong Kok at 1pm. After being seen on the streets of Mong Kok, it enters the Western Harbour Tunnel. To prevent an accident, tunnel staff close off one of the lanes. After running through the 10-kilometer-long tunnel, the dog is last seen heading towards Western District. Two days later it is found, 3 kilograms lighter, behind the Sai Wan tram depot.

February Sat 22

Night Spook Several firemen mistake an intruder for a ghost at Pok Fu Lam fire station. Oriental Daily reports they saw a 70-year-old man in a darkly lit room. One fireman pretended not to see him; another left the room immediately. Four hours later, a senior fireman finally decided to turn on the lights and realized the man was human. The man lives in a nearby housing estate, and doesn’t know how he got into the station. He is escorted home.

March Sat 29

A-Peel Process An elderly woman in Yau Ma Tei claims that her stash of 100-year-old chenpi (dried tangerine peels), apparently worth $20 million, was stolen by her son. After confronting him in the early hours, she calls police the next day and has him arrested. He is released on $500 bail. He tells Apple Daily his mother suffers from frequent hallucinations of people stealing her treasured chenpi.

April Mon 21

Naughty Tat At around 10pm, Legco President Jasper Tsang’s Facebook page shares a post linking to content of a woman getting a tattoo on her genitals. It is deleted one hour later. Tsang says, through his spokesperson, that he is in Kyoto and knows nothing about the link. He shares photos of Kyoto the following day.

May Thu 8

Open Ire At around 8am, a resident in a Happy Valley apartment wakes up and finds that the windows are open. He panics, concluding that someone broke into his home. After calling the police, he inspects his home more carefully and finds that nothing has been stolen. He then remembers that he did not shut the windows the night before.

June Mon 9

Looking for Stephen A 33-year-old man from Xian wants to pitch a new kung fu comedy to filmmaker Stephen Chow. He holds a banner that says “Looking for Stephen Chow 250”—which is also his proposed movie title. He decides to rest on a Kowloon Tong footbridge, but a passerby wrongly believes that he is attempting suicide and calls the police. He tells officers that he is a huge Stephen Chow fan and spent three years writing a script after being told to do so in a dream.

July Thu 17

Ticket Plea A woman attaches a 1,000-word article titled “Don’t Issue a Parking Ticket” to the windscreen of her seven-seater Hyundai. She says that she saved for two years to buy the car so that her daughter wouldn’t have to travel hours for piano lessons. She says there are no legal parking spots in the area, so she has no choice but to park illegally. Her husband is working two jobs, and if she gets a ticket, it will be “the end.” She ends with a challenge to the police to issue a ticket if they don’t believe in doing good. A passing police officer is unmoved and writes her a parking ticket.

August Mon 4

Grisly Case A 29-year-old man and his accomplice are tried in court for allegedly murdering and dismembering the man’s parents. The pair is said to have slit the elderly couple’s throats and dismembered the bodies, parts of which were salted or microwaved. The man’s friend allegedly suggested that they prepare the bodies as char siu, combine them with rice to make a lunch box and then dispose of them as food waste. The man is said to have later told his cousin that he had originally planned to kill his brother as well, before continuing his killing spree on the mainland. The jury is later dismissed after finding the case too gruesome.

September Wed 3

Falling in Love A 19-year-old man leaves a Lan Kwai Fong bar with his 18-year-old fiancée, who drunkenly falls onto the stairs in front of a bank on Wellington Street. The man is then seen picking her up and dropping her onto the ground three times. The man tells the police he was too drunk to hold her properly. The woman says the same, but the police suspect there could be something more and launch an investigation.