Man hoping to join prison troupe, deliberately gets caught stealing

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In a bizarre case of theft, a 44-year-old man was caught stealing phones – except his motive wasn't economic gain, but rather to land himself back in prison so that he could perform in the prison's artistic troupe.

The man, surnamed Wang, had previously been diagnosed with mild schizophrenia, and was sentenced to 10 months in prison in February after being caught on camera stealing cellphones from a hospital in the city’s Jiading District, Shanghai Television (STV) reported recently.

CGTN screenshot of the video on Pear Video platform.

The prosecutor in the case, Yu Zhong, said Wang had registered with the hospital's reception desk using his own identity card. Surveillance footage showed him looking directly into the lens, with no attempt to hide his face.

“His behavior was unusual. It seemed he deliberately acted under the camera so that the police could track him down easily,” said Yu.

CGTN screenshot of the video on Pear Video platform.

Wang has a long record of theft dating back to 2001, reports The Paper, a Shanghai-based site. According to The Paper, he have loved singing since childhood and once idolized a singer who became famous after being released from prison.

“Tilanqiao (the prison) has the stage I want, because people there get chances to perform at various prisons. I want a fulfilling end with being in prison and I won’t do it anymore,” said Wang in a video released by STV.

It's unknown whether Wang has managed to join the troupe, but users on social media were of two minds about what he did.

“I give thumb-ups to his courage but he chose the wrong way,” wrote user @jiangziya on Weibo, a platform similar to Twitter in China. “He is a total weirdo. He needs to receive psychological treatment when serving the sentence,” said another user using the name @xiaping.

Tilanqiao Prison’s Xin’an art troupe. //Photo via Shanghai Municipal Prison Administration's Wechat account

Tilanqiao Prison’s Xin’an art troupe was established in 1985. In the past decades, it has staged more than 5,700 performances and won dozens of awards.

According to China’s Prison Law, punishment and rehabilitation of criminals are the essential functions of prisons. Artistic activities have sometimes been an effective method for rehabilitating prisoners, but the purpose of setting up an art group is not to cultivate stars or artists.