Woman spends hours talking to thief on WeChat to get back stolen mirrors

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A woman in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, recently showed that patience, wit and determination can solve almost any situation.

Early Monday morning, the woman, surnamed Zhang, discovered that her car’s side mirrors were missing when she was about to drive to work. She told local newspaper China Business News, that she found three QR codes on the window of her car’s front door. Zhang later recognized them as WeChat and Alipay QR codes, for payments and friend requests.

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Zhang swiftly scanned the QR codes and realized she was the victim of a scam. Two of the QR codes were for payments of 1,000 yuan, obviously for the return of her mirrors. However, the ever-patient Zhang did not heed to the thief's exorbitant demands.

She had a different tactic in mind. Instead, Zhang added the thief as friends on WeChat and started to chat with him in a bid to persuade him to return the stolen mirrors.

Photo from hsw.cn

For two hours, Zhang acted as a caring listener, hoping to get the thief to change his mind and return her car mirrors. She also shared with him some untoward experiences that had occurred in her life.

“I changed my profile picture on the app to my real portrait, hoping I could win his trust. I wanted to listen to his confiding,” Zhang said.

Photo from hsw.cn

Surprisingly, her thoughts made sense to the thief, who agreed to return the mirrors. And following their two-hour conversation, Zhang also had a new understanding of people.

“I think it is inconceivable but I felt everyone has conscience, including criminals. I advise them to turn from their wrongdoings." Zhang said.