Police rescue pyramid scheme members trapped in house after call for help on social media
Officers in southern China find man and woman less than three hours after ‘call the police’ message is posted on Weibo
Police in southern China said they rescued a man and a woman who had been trapped in a house by a pyramid scheme organisation, less than three hours after the man put out a call for help on social media.
Ten people suspected of forcing them to stay in the house were detained.
It was the sixth time officers in Hunan province had freed members of pyramid schemes after they had sought help on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, Hunan police said in a Weibo post on Thursday.
Xie Jianwen posted a message asking for help with his name, phone number and location on Thursday morning.
“Call the police,” it read. “I am at the old house near a fish pond, in front of the Tianle sofa factory in Yiyang.”
The post was seen by Hunan police nine minutes later and officers in the city of Yiyang were alerted. It took a team about two hours to locate the house, in a rural area, where the man and woman were being held.