Chinese seafood vendor puts US$1,600 bounty on head of US$50 ‘crab thief’
Stallholder claims customer tried to trick his mother with spurious mobile payment before running away with the crustaceans
A crab vendor from northeastern China is offering a 10,000 yuan (US$1,580) reward for information about a man he claims stole 300 yuan worth of his crustaceans, local media reported.
The seafood seller, identified only by his surname Zhang, said a customer went to his stall at a market in Dalian, Liaoning province, on Thursday, Bandao Morning Post reported on Monday.
The customer, who was served by Zhang’s mother, asked for the crabs and said he would pay for them using the WeChat mobile payment service, the report said.
Although the customer appeared to swipe the QR code for the goods, Zhang’s mother was unable to find any record of a payment being made. The customer showed her his record of payment, but when she said she still could not trace it, he changed his mind and said he had used Alipay instead, the report said.
At that point, the customer ran away holding the crabs. Zhang ran after him but was unable to catch him, the report said.
The vendor later posted details of the incident and the huge reward on WeChat.
Alipay is operated by Ant Financial, a unit of Alibaba Group, which also owns the South China Morning Post.
