We previously ran the story of a young girl who stole her mother’s husband in China, but it appears the thieving exploits of innocent faced cherubs has been reaching epidemic levels across the country.  However, it appears electronics are the main object of affection for these shoplifting small fries caught on tape.

The story begins with a video posted on the website LiveLeak.com titled “Little girl gets bored and steals phone in store.” However, as many pointed out in expletive sprinkled comments this girl doesn’t look bored at all.  In fact she looks quite well trained.

It’s also uncertain how the poster of the video determined that it was a phone the girl took since it’s difficult to see. The woman at the left of the frame in a blue skirt seems to be the girl’s mother, but it’s difficult to confirm that as well.

Filled with more questions than answers I went searching through some Chinese websites.  I didn’t find any for this particular case, but what I did find was more disturbing.

I was first, taken right back to LiveLeak for yet another security camera video “Little girl stealing computer from apple store” which captures a cute little girl who can’t be more than 10 yanking a laptop right from the display. This video was posted back in August of 2012.

Looking further there was also a case from October 2012 involving a young girl and her mother ripping off an electronics shop.  China Economic Net reported that there was a ring of mother-daughter thefts similar to this that took place in Ningming, Xingan, Binyang, and Longzhou.

In this instance the mothers would act as a lookout and block the view of any clerks so that the child can use their diminutive size and air of innocence to get at the goods.

And there’s so much more. How about this little girl stealing a puppy with her “father” watching her back in Xinyang city in December of 2011?

And here’s a girl stealing the laptop from the counter of a clothing store in May of 2012.  She seems a little told old for this racket but it’s another great example of how terrible these people are at avoiding security cameras. This girl was ultimately caught.

Just as I was about to give up my search, bingo! A story from December of last year shows still images of what appears to be the same girl with the same MO as the first LiveLeak video.

The story from the Qianjang Evening news of 28 December 2011 explains that the girl was 5 years old with her mother in the clothing store.  Like in the video she snuck behind the counter and took an iPhone. She had also searched for cash but couldn’t find any.

The mother and daughter left the store undetected.  This is because beforehand, two other adult women had entered the store and preoccupied the staff, allowing the little girl to go to work.

Going back to the original video, from November 4, 2012, we can now assume that every other customer there is in on the job and, considering the two incidents are a year apart, they all may have been very successful at avoiding capture.

It would certainly seem these incidents of parents using their children as instruments of thievery are on the rise in China, and law-abiding citizens are outraged at the parents and deeply concerned about the mental wellbeing of these children.

Source & Inset Images: LiveLeak 1 2 (English), China Economic Net (Chinese), Xinhua 1 2 (Chinese), Tengxun Yuer (Chinese)
Top Image: Hexun
Bottom Images: Xinhua

▼ Finally, one more case from June of 2012; a gang of 4 women armed with babies rob a store.