By LIU KUN in Wuhanliukun@chinadaily.self storagecom.cn Dressed like a locksmith, Wang Mingzhu arrives at his usual spot in the inner city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, at 9 am. But, unlike the usual locksmith, he is more interested in observing the crowds than his business.Wang is a plainclothes policeman. After twohours, a pregnantwomaninred catches Wang’s attention, and after the woman passes in front of him,Wang stands up and follows her. The woman looks around frequently and cautiously, so Wang stops and signals to a “vendor” nearby to take over the stalking. Roaming around for half an hour, the womanseems tonotice that shehas beenfollowed and enters a public lavatory. Minutes later, outwalks a fashionablewoman in gray shirt. Thewoman has abandoned her pregnant disguise and changed her clothes to ditch her stalkers. But her trick fails to escape the professional eyes of Wang, who swiftly orders other plainclothes police personnel to track her into a shoe store. Wang has sound judgment—the woman is a pickpocket. Just as she successfully sneaks a customer’s handbag into her backpack and is about to flee,Wang and his colleague nab her on the spot. How to spot a “fake pregnant woman”? Wang raises his bushy eyebrows. “You can tell fromthe posture and gait,” he says. As a senior policeman, Wang has been focusing on pickpocketing since 2003. In recent years, Wang has caught more than 2,000 pickpockets. Every day, Wang and his team patrol around Zhongshan Road, the downtown commercial center ofWuhan,where thehigh concentration of people and businesses make theft a common occurrence. “Some people think catching thieves is easy,” Wang says. “The job is in fact more technical than that.” When observing crowds, regular people won’t notice any abnormalities, but Wang and his team members are able to detect the subtle nervousness of cautious pickpockets. “Timing is equally important,” explains Wang. “If seized early, the thief will plead their 迷你倉nnocence. If you catch them too late, they won’t admit the crime because the stolen goods have already been transferred elsewhere.” Wang recruits dozens of volunteers. The “vendors” who helped him track the “fake pregnantwoman” are his righthandmen. “Wang can deal with all kinds of pickpockets. He recognizes them quickly and responds at the right time,” Dong Anxin, the instructor of the local Minquan Police Station, says of Wang. “Thieves are afraid of him.” Some thieves have been put behind bars by Wang several times, and they threaten that they will “kick his ass when they get out”. Wang is oblivious to these types of threats. “Iwouldn’t stay on the job if I amafraid.” But the ironman felt frightened once. It was on Aug 15, 2006, when Wang got into a fight with a tough thief, and when Wang finally seized the man’s neck and brought him down, the thief suddenly turned around and bit Wang’s upper leg so hard that it bled. The thief, who went under the alias Liu Sha, was a 24yearold habitual thief. During interrogation, he confessed that he was HIV positive, and confirmation from a hospital shookWang. “I tookprescribedmedicine everyday and avoided hanging outwithmy girlfriend and family during that time,” he says. Luckily, the test results showedWang had not been infected. Wang believes thieves are no different from others. “I hate their deed, but I pity them too,” says Wang. “Sometimes we talk with them. If they have difficulties in life,we will try our best to help themout.” Wang was voted one of the 21 favorite policemen around the country in an online survey organized by People’s Daily in late 2013. After work, Wang is a loving father. He spends most of his spare time with his wife and son, going to parks.When his little boy is too tired from playing, Wang carries him home on his back. “I’m not a hero,” says Wang, “I’m just an ordinary man with a deep love formywork and family.” Xing Yi and Zhang Jihong contributed to this story. 迷你倉將軍澳
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