"Don't scream! Your son owes me money! Go and fetch all the money from your house!" A long, sharp knife was held in her hand, with a large mask covering her face. An elderly couple in their sixties in Jiangning, Nanjing were shocked when they saw this burglar who had broken into their home. More surprisingly, the burglar turned out to be a woman. Although the old man was already 77 years old, in order to protect his wife, he rushed forward and firmly hugged the sharp knife extended by the young female burglar, engaging in a struggle with her. The burglar ran away and was soon arrested. What everyone didn't expect was that this girl, whose household registration showed she was 19 years old, was already six months pregnant.
At noon, an elderly couple's home was invaded by a female burglar. Mr. Zhang is 77 years old, and his wife Wang is 70. They live in Shangfang Community, Dongshan Street, Jiangning. Their house is on the street side, a two-story building. As the elderly couple grew older, their son and daughter-in-law were working outside during the day, so they stayed at home doing some handicraft work to supplement their household income. Around 10:30 am on March 5th, the elderly couple was folding paper money on the first floor of their home. With Qingming Festival approaching, these items would be necessary for tomb sweeping and worship.
"Old man, listen, isn't there someone at the door? It seems like a mobile phone is ringing..." Since they lived on the street side, the couple usually left the main gate unlocked for convenience when going in and out or visiting neighbors. Mr. Zhang was hard of hearing, but at this moment, after listening carefully, there indeed was the sound of a mobile phone ringing outside the door. "Who is it? If you have something, come inside and talk." Mr. Zhang shouted, but the other party did not respond. Feeling strange, Mrs. Wang got up to check, only to find a stranger directly rushing in. After entering the house, "she" slammed the door heavily, and a single-edged dagger about 30 centimeters long was immediately pointed at her.
The elderly couple, having lived such a long life, had only seen such scenes of armed robbery on TV before, never expecting to encounter it in real life, which frightened them immensely. "Don't scream. Your son owes me money. I've come to collect it. Quickly go and bring me all the money in the house!" Upon hearing the voice, the elderly couple realized that it was clearly a young woman's voice. Looking closely, the burglar was indeed a female: a large mask covered her face, wearing a long purple women's down jacket, with long hair.
"Oh, my son is upstairs. How much does he owe you? I'll call him down," said the clever Mrs. Wang, pretending to be calm as her son and daughter-in-law were at work. Hearing this, the female burglar immediately became anxious and quickly approached Mrs. Wang with the knife raised. Seeing this, Mr. Zhang immediately rushed forward and engaged in a fight with the criminal. Despite being 77 years old, the old man was still very robust. He firmly embraced the sharp knife with both hands, and in the struggle, the female burglar was defeated. Mr. Zhang seized the knife, and the burglar quickly opened the door and fled.
During the struggle for the knife, Mr. Zhang's right hand was cut and bled profusely. Mrs. Wang was terrified and screamed for help. Neighbors came upon hearing the news and called the police. After treatment at the hospital, Mr. Zhang was fine, with only his right thumb injured.
At around 12 pm that day, the police from Shangfang Police Station of Jiangning Public Security Bureau received the alarm and immediately rushed to the scene.
"A woman committing a knife robbery alone, we've never encountered this before," said Chief Wu Keyou of the police station. The victimized couple described the physical characteristics of the suspect to the police officers. "That woman looks about 20 years old, with a dialect from somewhere in Anhui Province," Mr. Zhang told the police.
Chief Wu introduced to the reporters that the police conducted an investigation among the floating population in Shangfang but found no results. Just as everyone was worried, at around 8 pm that evening, a middle-aged man in his 50s and a young man in his 20s came to the police station to report a missing person case. The middle-aged man claimed that his six-month-pregnant daughter had gone missing.
"My daughter went out to buy fried rice at around 12 noon and hasn't returned yet. Her mobile phone is also unreachable. Has she encountered any bad people? Please help me! She is six months pregnant!" The middle-aged man, Mr. Chen, said he was from Anhui Province and operated a snack business nearby with his wife.
The young man who came along to report the case was Mr. Chen's daughter's boyfriend. According to the young man, he and Mr. Chen's daughter, Chen Xiaoli, were temporarily staying at a hotel on Shangfang Street. At around 12 noon that day, he asked his girlfriend to go out and buy two bowls of fried rice to bring back for them to eat together. However, his girlfriend didn't return. Because Chen Xiaoli was already six months pregnant, he was also very worried. "She was wearing a long purple down jacket when she went out..."
"Purple down jacket?" Upon hearing this information, Chief Wu immediately associated it with the female burglar who was dressed similarly earlier that noon. Could this missing Chen Xiaoli be the burglar?
However, the victim Mr. Zhang said the female burglar was in her 30s and didn't mention that she was heavily pregnant. Chief Wu then led the police officers to visit Mr. Zhang again to understand the situation.
After careful recollection, Mr. Zhang said that because the suspect used a large mask to cover her face while committing the crime, he didn't see her face clearly. Regarding whether she was pregnant, since the weather was still cold that day, the suspect was wearing thick clothing, so he didn't notice carefully.
"She disappeared at noon, and our police car arrived at the scene at noon as well. Coincidentally, the hotel where she lived was next to the victim's house. We analyzed that she might have seen our police car when she went out to buy fried rice and fled out of fear of guilt," Chief Wu forcefully excluded other suspects and listed Chen Xiaoli as the primary suspect. After subsequent investigations, the single-edged dagger that Mr. Zhang wrestled from the female burglar was indeed lost from Mr. Chen's snack shop, further increasing Chen Xiaoli's suspicion of committing the crime.
On the evening of March 8th, while the police were searching for Chen Xiaoli, Mr. and Mrs. Chen brought their daughter Chen Xiaoli to the police station to surrender. Originally, Chen Xiaoli's relationship with her boyfriend was not supported by her family. Unexpectedly, she became pregnant last year, which caused even more opposition from her family. After the Spring Festival this year, her boyfriend accompanied her to visit her future father-in-law in Jiangning. Since neither of them had proper jobs, their daily expenses for lodging and food were quite high. Not wanting to ask her parents for money and being short of funds, Chen Xiaoli decided to steal.
Chen Xiaoli confessed that because Mr. Zhang's house was close to the hotel and the door was often left unlocked, she had previously stolen twice from there. On the day of the incident, because she had no money again, at around 10:30 am, she originally planned to steal money from Mr. Zhang's house. However, both elderly people were downstairs, so she hid outside waiting for an opportunity. Unfortunately, at that time, a friend called her, and Mr. and Mrs. Zhang noticed her. She then decided to take the risk and rob with a knife. After Mr. Zhang took the knife from her, she fled back to the hotel. When she went out to buy food at noon and saw the police car parked in front of Mr. Zhang's house, she realized something was wrong and fled to her aunt's house in Dachang, Nanjing.
When Chen Xiaoli's parents brought her to surrender, they told the police that their daughter was actually only 16 years old, a minor. This surprised the police. Checking the household registration records, it showed that Chen Xiaoli was 19 years old. However, Chen Xiaoli's parents said that they had been working as migrant workers across the country since early days. Since Chen Xiaoli was an unplanned birth, they hadn't dared to register her birth. Later, when registering her birth, the family falsely reported her age, making her three years older. Currently, Chen Xiaoli has been placed under bail by the police. Regarding her real age, the police are conducting bone age identification.
How should the law deal with this teenage robbery suspect who is six months pregnant? Consulting legal experts, if the bone age identification shows that Chen Xiaoli is over 18 years old, then she will bear criminal responsibility. If the child is born, after the court sentences her, she will be given about one year of parole outside the prison to take care of the child at home. After the breastfeeding period ends, she will still have to return to the prison to complete her sentence.
(All characters in the article are pseudonyms)