"We don't have much time to live either. If you push us, we will let some blood out. Don't believe us? Then give it a try."
At around 2 PM on the afternoon of two days ago, in the processing hall of the Ningbo Overlimit Transport Inspection Station at Hangzhou Bay Bridge, five women holding AIDS patient medical cards and AIDS control medicine were crying and yelling, threatening to infect law enforcement officers with their blood. Their purpose was to get back the over-height truck that had been seized.
Zheng Haifei, a staff member at the inspection station, said that since August, this was already the third group of people claiming to be "AIDS patients" who had intruded into the over-limit transport inspection station processing hall to interfere with law enforcement.
The processing hall received five "AIDS patients."
The truck seized by the Ningbo Overlimit Transport Inspection Station at Hangzhou Bay Bridge was registered in Henan Province with the license plate number Yu P5273*.
On the evening of August 23rd, the law enforcement officers discovered it at the south end of the bridge. It was fully loaded with fabric, with the total height reaching 4.7 meters, severely exceeding the limit height by 0.7 meters. The law enforcement officers immediately seized the large truck.
At around 2 PM on the day before yesterday, suddenly five middle-aged women entered the processing hall at the inspection station. They spoke in a Henan dialect and claimed they were the owners of the Henan truck that had been seized. As soon as they came in, they started shouting for the law enforcement officers to release the truck.
"This vehicle was bought with money pooled by the five of us. Just let the truck go," they said. Afterward, the five middle-aged women took out AIDS patient medical cards and AIDS control medicine and placed them in front of the law enforcement officers.
Next, one of them pulled up her sleeve and flailed it in front of the law enforcement officers while continuously leaning toward them. "You will let it go whether you want to or not. Anyway, we don't have much time left to live. If you push us, we'll just let some blood out."
Caught off guard, the law enforcement officers immediately calmed the five women by saying they needed to consult with their superiors and promptly reported the situation to the station chief.
Soon, the SWAT team from the Hangzhou Bay Bridge Special Police Unit and nearby police station officers arrived at the scene. Just as they were about to ask questions, the five women quietly left the processing hall.
In the span of 20 days, there have already been three incidents of "AIDS farces."
The Ningbo Overlimit Transport Monitoring Station at Hangzhou Bay Bridge was established on the west side of the south end of the bridge when the bridge opened in May 2008. It is specifically responsible for checking vehicles passing through the bridge that are over-height, over-length, over-width, and over-weight.
Such "AIDS farces" at this monitoring station were rarely encountered in the past, but suddenly there have been three incidents this month.
The first two incidents occurred on August 7th and August 18th, involving an Anhui-registered truck and another Henan-registered truck respectively. The people coming to retrieve the vehicles were both middle-aged men who claimed to be the owners and to have AIDS, hoping the law enforcement officers would release the vehicles.
"The first two times, the people's attitudes were relatively better, just continuously pleading and speaking kindly. This time was different; the five women started threatening right away, which was malicious and seriously interfered with our law enforcement," stated the Ningbo Overlimit Transport Monitoring Station at Hangzhou Bay Bridge clearly: stabilize this group first, immediately report to the police, and illegal over-limit vehicles still need to be handled according to the law.
At around 4 PM on the day before yesterday, after the five women who claimed to have "AIDS" left, driver Li Mou of the Yu P5273* truck unloaded the over-limit cargo himself and paid a fine of 2000 yuan.
Facing the farce, law enforcement officers feel helpless.
In fact, the law enforcement officers at the Ningbo Overlimit Transport Inspection Station at Hangzhou Bay Bridge are very clear that this is purely a farce, and those self-proclaimed "AIDS vehicle owners" are fake.
Zheng Haifei said there are two obvious loopholes: First, generally when the over-limit trucks are seized, the law enforcement officers and the involved drivers or owners have already met. However, the "AIDS" owners who come later are usually not the parties previously seen. Second, further investigation by the law enforcement officers into the information of the seized truck's owner quickly reveals that the owner has no relation to these "AIDS patients."
However, facing the interference of these "AIDS" farces, the Ningbo Overlimit Transport Inspection Station at Hangzhou Bay Bridge feels powerless.
"Such farces seriously interfere with our law enforcement and also threaten the personal safety of law enforcement officers. But, we cannot determine if they truly have AIDS, so we can only let the law enforcement officers stabilize them first, keep a distance as much as possible, and wait for the police to handle it," said a staff member.