Chubby Chinese thief caught in a tight spot

A cunning plan to rob the warehouse of his former employer went awry for one chubby Chinese thief after he became wedged, legs dangling, in the roof of a lift. The man, named as Mr Xi, was fired from a technology company in the southern city of Shenzhen in October.

In a bid to exact revenge, and improve his finances, Mr Xi decided to rob the company's warehouses, hoping to carry away valuable surveillance cameras. Last Saturday evening, he hid himself in the company's offices, waiting until all the staff had left before trying to gain access to the warehouse underneath.



However, he found he was unable to break into the warehouse and instead decided, in the early hours of Sunday morning, to make his escape by removing the ventilation fan of a freight lift and hoisting himself into the lift shaft. But Mr Xi's plan had not accounted for his girth. He found himself quickly wedged into the lift ceiling and unable to free himself.

Mr Xi called his girlfriend, who arrived at the offices to help him. But after two hours of trying to squeeze him through the gap, and the removal of his trousers to make him more streamlined, Mr Xi was still stuck. When the company's security guard arrived on Sunday morning, he found Mr Xi hanging trouserless, and his girlfriend exhausted from her efforts to free him. Eventually Mr Xi was freed by the police, who detained him and his girlfriend for their attempted burglary.