crimescene

GraemeNicol posted a photo:

I'd been near the front of the queue and lucky enough to get a seat. No sooner had I made myself comfortable, when an awful fuss and commotion blew up in the aisle on my right. The doors of the bus slammed shut. The driver shouted something I coudln't make out. We sat there for two minutes. What on earth ?

I got up out of my prized seat and went to ask the driver what was happening, why we weren't moving. Immediately I heard the rustle of clothes and a thud as an opportunist slid himself into what had been my seat. I glared at him. He knew. The bus driver told me that we were waiting for the police to come - a passenger had sounded the alarm about a mobile phone being pickpocketed, we would all be searched as we got off the bus to find the thief. I looked back round at my own thief, sitting in my seat. I looked again, and an alarm bell sounded in my head. He had been so quick to slide in, perhaps even only I had noticed him. I stared at him again. He looked back guiltily, but guilty of what ?

The police arrived two minutes later, and as a foreigner, I was considered an unlikely enough a suspect to be allowed off without being searched. I standed outside and waited, watching other passengers slinking off the bus, as more police arrive and board the bus. After another minute or two, they emerged from the empty bus with a man in handcuffs, and sure enough it was the exact same man who had stolen my seat.

Dalian, September 2008