Peasants Beaten Out of Melons in Beijing
Seven truckloads of watermelons were stolen in a 12-hour free-for-all at a Beijing railway station last month, the Farmers’ Daily newspaper said Thursday.
Peasants’ trucks bringing 22,000 pounds of melons to market were halted by gangs who demanded that they sell the fruit, the newspaper said. When the peasants refused, the gangs, armed with bamboo staves, began carting the melons away. Bystanders, some in railway uniform, joined in the mass theft.
The melons, regarded as a delicacy in China, were valued at about $2,700.
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