A woman in south China's Guangdong Province was fined 500 yuan (US$64)
yesterday after police discovered that her report on the kidnapping
of her three-month old son was made-up, Chinese media reported
today.
The alleged kidnapping took place around 11 AM on December 8
when the woman, surnamed Yuan, was waiting for a green-light at an
intersection. Suddenly, a man in black rushed over to her and
grabbed her son, she told the police in Nanshan District of
Shenzhen City in the province.
The story was carried by newspapers and websites around the
country yesterday because the crime site was only 100 meters away
from a police station. Many used this news as an example to show
the lack of safety in Shenzhen.
However, the police soon became suspicious of the kidnapping as
security cameras on the site and inside the nearby residential area
had no recordings of the event.
"There were no witnesses on the street, even though the crime
happened during the daytime," said an official from the public
security office in Nanshan.
Yuan confessed four days later that she made up the crime to
avoid inquiries from her family, especially her husband, since she
really gave the child to her lover, the police announced yesterday
afternoon.
Yuan has been living separately from her husband for many years
and only met him occasionally. After she delivered the baby, she
didn't know for sure who the boy's father was because she had
sexual relations with both her husband and her 40-year-old lover
surnamed Sun.
In the beginning, she told her husband it was his son. But as
the boy grew up, he increasingly looked like her lover, the report
said.
"So I gave the boy to Sun on Friday, because he has no kin, only
an adopted daughter," Yuan told the police. "I had to say the boy
went missing because I couldn't tell my husband that he is not the
real father. So I came up with the story."
Sun was fined 500 yuan and will be put into custody for 10 days.
Yuan was also fined 500 yuan but she was exempted from custody
because she just gave birth to a baby and Chinese law bans
detaining women while they're still breastfeeding, said the
report.
The police officer said that the city was shocked as it's the
first street robbery case of an infant in Shenzhen's history.
"The case posed a negative impact on the city's image and may
arouse public panic," the official said.
(Shanghai Daily December 15, 2006)