The Final Night in China

Last night, on my final night in Tianjin, I only slept for two and a half hours due to an unexpected event.

I was cleaning the room because I need to return the key to the landlord and leave China the next morning. When I went downstairs to take out the garbage for the second time, I saw a girl coming towards me in a hurry.

She was probably in her early 20s, with heavy makeup, which reminded me of something in that moment.

She said, 

"Could you please help me call the police?"

Her words immediately put me on alert, and I looked around and saw that there was no one else nearby. (of course, it was 2:30am.)

My first question was, "Are you injured?"

"No, but I was cheated out of my cell phone, so please call police for me." 

But I just went downstairs to take out the garbage and didn't bring my phone. So I said I would go with her to the security guard, who should have a phone.

However, she didn't know where the security guard was located, so it seems she's not from this community.

On our way to the security guard, she explained that she was brought to here by someone she met on WeChat. She wanted to try to get a love relationship (I tried to believe her), but when she entered the man's room, she found that it was a shared room with several men.

I was so nervous when I heard this that I took a look at her again. She said, "We didn't do anything. I'm not hurt."

(Young lady, that's really fortunate.)

"Then he asked to borrow my phone for lighting, and then he disappeared. It's my new iPhone, over 6000 yuan..."  (about $850 USD)

I woke up the security guard gently and asked him to call the police.

The security guard asked the girl why she was here, and the girl repeated her romantic motives with the man she met online for the first time... (Girl, you don't have to explain it in such detail.)

The security guard seemed very interested, I had to help change the subject: "The security cameras are on 24 hours, let's take a look." The girl still remembered the room number and license plate number.

In the monitoring room, the security guard said we needed the police present to view the security footage.

While waiting for the police, the girl kept talking about the 6000 yuan. It seemed like she had saved up for a while to afford an iPhone.

I told her to remote lock her iPhone or delete the data first to ensure the safety. "Does your iPhone have a power on password?"

"Yes, but that man knows it too."

(Girl, what have you done...)

"Okay, then you have to sign in to iCloud to lock your iPhone."

"What is iCloud?"

(...I spent some time explaining, then I went upstairs and got my laptop.)

I brought my laptop downstairs. The girl tried several times but getting errors like "incorrect ID or password," even for her QQ mailbox password. Now I can't do anything.

She is still nagging about her 6000 yuan.

(Girl, you can buy another iPhone, but you can't buy the data in it.)

The police arrived and began questioning the girl about what happened. Of course, the girl detailed the whole romantic motives again in front of all of us.

Thankfully, the police didn't ask further...Then the police started educating the girl: "Why would you go to a stranger's home in the middle of the night?"

I really couldn't bear to embarrass her, although I also understood the need for education, but we should deal with the main problem first.

And since so many people are watching, they should consider the girl's privacy as well.

I reminded them about the security footage again, and we watched for ten minutes but still couldn't find the car.

I was really sleepy and had to get up early. There was nothing more I could do here.

I wrote down my phone number and room number and gave it to the girl, told her I needed to go back to rest, and she would be safe with the police.

If she needed help and could trust me, I could offer her a separate room and a bed. I also have food at my home, and she can ride with me to the airport after sunrise. (She works near the airport.)

The girl thanked me profusely. I said encountering all this on my last day was fate. If I can help, I will.

The next day, I woke up early feeling exhausted, and I spent a busy day dealing with travel. 

My phone number became unusable a few hours later as I flew out of China. Therefore, I didn't receive any message from the girl, hoping she's doing well and learned something.