The suspect held a hostage with a paper cutter. Xin Kuai Daily reporter Zhiwei Bi / photo
The incident occurred at Yingcheng Garden on Xingang Zhong Road, and the man involved was persuaded by the police to release the hostage.
Xin Kuai Daily reported that journalists Hai Sheng Chen and Guo Hui Li, along with correspondent Hai Gongxuan, reported that yesterday morning, on the 6th floor of Building C in Yingcheng Garden on Xingang Zhong Road in Haizhu District, a man demanded 686,000 yuan for goods and held the female financial director of the company hostage with a knife. After nearly 5 hours of standoff with the police, he was persuaded by the police at around 4 pm, and the hostage was safely rescued. The police are currently investigating the specific circumstances.
At around 1 pm yesterday afternoon, Xin Kuai Daily reporters arrived at the scene where the incident occurred, and the police had already locked down the gate and set up a cordon. From the opposite residential building, reporters saw that inside the room where the incident occurred, a man wearing a black overcoat and blue jeans held a woman hostage with a paper cutter near the windowsill and confronted the police. The man's hand was around the woman's neck, and he occasionally drank water and made phone calls.
At 2:25 pm, the man suddenly shouted and threw cups, calendars, notebooks, and other items from the nearby desk out of the window, fortunately without hitting anyone. At around 4 pm, the man, who is about 1.7 meters tall, was subdued by the police and then taken away by the SWAT team to a police car.
According to the police, the man surnamed Lu, aged 39, is from Guangzhou and is the boss of a certain craft gift box manufacturing company in Guangzhou. At around 11 am yesterday, Lu went to a food company located in Yingcheng Garden to claim a debt that had been owed for more than two years but failed. He then took the female financial director hostage with a paper cutter. After much effort, the police successfully broke through Lu's psychological defenses and successfully rescued the female hostage. No one was injured during the incident.
Currently, Lu has been criminally detained, and the case is under further review.
The Hijacker
Debt Repayment Delayed Despite Court Order
During Lu's standoff with the police, Xin Kuai Daily reporters managed to call his mobile phone. Lu introduced the situation during the call as follows:
In 2004, he opened a food packaging factory in Zengcheng. In 2008, he received an order from Yue Huang Food Co., Ltd. to make mooncake boxes. By late October of that year, an economic dispute arose with the company, and they owed him 686,000 yuan for the goods, which remained unpaid until now. To reclaim the money, he visited the company multiple times, but they kept delaying payment. In 2009, he sued the company in court. "Both the first and second trials ruled in my favor, but they just kept dragging their feet and wouldn't pay," said Lu.
At around 10 am yesterday, he returned to the company again, carrying a paper cutter. Frustrated by yet another failure to collect the money, he impulsively took the company's female financial director hostage.
"Rest assured, I won't hurt anyone. I'm doing this just to get my money back," Lu said.
The Company Involved
Packaging Box Quality Issues Led to Withholding Part of Payment
Xin Kuai Daily contacted Mr. Yu, responsible for sales at the company where the incident occurred. According to him, the room where the incident happened was one of the company's sales offices. Previously, the company did have contractual relations with Lu, but due to quality issues with some of the mooncake boxes provided by Lu, the mooncakes were damaged and returned by the supermarket. Therefore, the company withheld part of Lu's payment. Both parties indeed went to court twice, and the court made its ruling, but the company side was dissatisfied with the judgment and is currently appealing.
Regarding Lu's actions, Mr. Yu expressed understanding. "He didn't harm our employees; he just wanted to recover the final payment through this method," Mr. Yu said. Most of Lu's payments have been made, it's just that there were some unresolved tail-end payments. He hopes that Lu can calmly sit down and negotiate a solution with both sides.
(Informants: Mr. Li and Ms. Hu, Reward: 100 yuan each)