From pumpkin flavored ice cream to sweet pumpkin dumplings, I seem to be writing quite often about pumpkins recently, which I guess is not too surprising considering that we are about 3 weeks away from Halloween. Well, this too, is a story about a pumpkin, but is completely unrelated to Halloween. In this case, the pumpkin turned into a potentially deadly “trick” instead of a “treat”.

The Chinese media recently reported an incident which took place in the city of Chanchung in Jiling Province, around 11 a.m. on September 27th. The unsuspecting victims involved in the incident were a Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang, who were minding their business in a parked car, when suddenly something broke the rear window of the car with a loud crash. The shocked Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang turned and looked back to find amidst the shattered glass… a pumpkin about 30cm (1 ft) in diameter.

Fortunately, the two men were not injured, but the pumpkin just as easily could have seriously hurt someone. Plus, there was the damage to the car, which incidentally had been borrowed from someone else. Naturally, they had to find out how a pumpkin came falling onto the car and who was responsible.

Just as they were wondering what exactly had happened, a woman who looked about sixty years old opened the window and looked out from one of the rooms above in the building the car was parked by. By this time, a crowd had started to gather below, but the woman, seemingly unperturbed, simply asked Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang and the crowd, “Has anyone seen my pumpkin?” She even went on to add, “People down there, please don’t take my pumpkin!” Apparently, the pumpkin had been placed by the window in the woman’s room and had fallen off for some reason, causing the accident.

Astonished by the woman’s reaction but certainly not about to let matters rest, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang shouted to the woman “Is this your pumpkin? Look what it did to our car’s rear window! What are going to do about this? Can you just please come down so that we can talk about this?” At first, the woman remained silent, and she refused to come down from her room. Eventually, she further surprised the two men by making an unbelievable suggestion. “I don’t have any money! You can take the pumpkin.”

Naturally, this was unacceptable to the unfortunate Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang, who just happened to be parked in the wrong place at the wrong time. According to the media, the police eventually had to be called, since the woman adamantly refused to come down. The cost of the damage to the car was estimated at 1,500yuan ($239). Now, who would have thought that a pumpkin would make such a lethal weapon?

We sincerely hope you don’t try something like this on your enemy, because you may very well hit someone else with the pumpkin well, it really isn’t a nice thing to do to anyone.

Source: Narinari.com (Japanese)

Top Image and Inset Images: 新文化网 (Chinese)