One of the pregnant shoplifters bursts into tears after being sentenced in Hangzhou. Photo: CFP
Wearing fashionable clothes and carrying a large-sized bag, Li Xiaoying knows how to hide the fact she's from a poverty-stricken village. Dressing like an urbanite and being pregnant was her modus operendi during a crime spree that ended when the young mother was given an 11-year prison sentence for shoplifting.
Evidence provided in court by police showed that Li and some other pregnant cohorts routinely went on shoplifting sprees in major shopping malls and supermarkets in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
A year ago last April, Li was about to start her quick-finger rounds at a digital products market when police pounced and arrested her in a coordinated sting operation.
Li was among 22 pregnant or breast-feeding women who were arrested that day, most of whom had been through the routine many times. Fifteen of those arrested were from Li's poverty-stricken village in Hunan Province.
While it wasn't the first time Li and other women had landed in jail for petty crimes, the result would be a different result this time.
Multiple arrests but never tried
Twice the previous year, Li who was also pregnant at that time had been arrested for stealing. Both times she feigned discomfort to her unborn baby and walked out of the Hangzhou police station without being charged.
The leniency police showed Li and other pregnant and nursing woman has apparently backfired and created dozens of professional pregnant shoplifters who know they will be let off if they put up a fuss.
The police apparently feel hamstrung by the criminal procedural law that dictates that suspects arrested who are sick, pregnant or nursing must be released on bail or kept under house arrest.
Pregnant women taking advantage of the apparent loophole in law weren't unknown to police in Hangzhou and other places around China.
"The number of cases soared in the past two years. Our investigation found they were working together as a gang making a living from stealing," said Jiang Weiping, a senior officer with the Gongshu district office of the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau.
Xia Xueluan, a professor of sociology at Peking University says the rise of pregnant thieves and the severity of their sentences are the fault of poor police enforcement.
"The local police are to blame. They know clearly these women will be punished heavily someday, but instead of dealing with them, they just sit and wait for the consequences to occur," Xia told the Global Times.
In one infamous case, local police say Zhu Qing was arrested 34 times for theft but was released each time. She was a serial pregnant mother who would have abortions only to get pregnant again as soon as she was able.
In the spring of last year, Hangzhou police finally had enough of the game playing. When Li was arrested for the third time the police had a surprise waiting for her and two dozen other pregnant or nursing women who had been scooped up in the sting operation.
"We decided this time to give the group a fatal blow. Otherwise, there would be more pregnant women joining the gang in the city," said senior officer Jiang Weiping.
Before the mass arrests the Hangzhou police secured a wing of the Hangzhou No.2 People's Hospital where the women found the rules of the game had changed.
"They played the same old tricks, faking illness and discomfort. This time we has gynecologists and nurses on hand to tend to them. They realized it was going to be different this time and so six of them went on a hunger strike on the second day," said another senior female officer also surnamed Jiang.
Doctors gave the women, who ranged in age from 19 to 39, daily check-ups. Many of them had already given birth to two or three children and one of them had been pregnant eight times in the past 10 years.
During their detention in hospital, medical experts lectured them on the harm that frequent abortions can cause. Legal experts were also brought in to help them better understand the law and the consequences of their actions.
Held for 14 months, the pregnant thieves, who police say were responsible for 400 thefts a month, were finally tried in June. Their sentences ranged from six months to 11 years.
Accused of stealing goods worth nearly 110,000 yuan, Li Xiaoying received the harshest sentence. She burst into tears perhaps realizing her infant baby will be 10 by the time she gets out of prison. None of the women have appealed their sentences.
