Guangdong’s Huaiji County in Zhaoqing recently experienced a once-in-a-century flood, affecting 19 townships and 180,000 people. A shop owner lamented online that right after the flood receded, their supermarket was looted. Not only were the goods rescued by employees during the flood taken, but also several thousand yuan in cash from the cash register.
According to a post by Zhao Yiming, the owner of the supermarket, on June 19 on social media, a large number of people ignored the staff’s attempts to stop them and cleared out the merchandise in the store. The goods that were soaked by the flood were taken away, and even the items painstakingly moved by employees to the second floor to keep safe were looted, including several thousand yuan in cash from the cash register, adding insult to injury to their losses.
The staff tried to stop the looting but were outnumbered, so they resorted to using their phones to capture evidence. The video shared by the owner showed the supermarket packed with people rushing to grab supplies, among them women, the elderly, and children.
The owner mentioned that the ongoing flooding had caused the power and internet to be cut off. After the flood receded, they couldn’t return to the store immediately, and it was only through the kind neighbors who called multiple times that they found out about the looting.
According to the owner’s statement to Hong Kong’s “Ming Pao,” the police are currently investigating the matter, and they are unable to disclose more details as they are busy with post-disaster cleanup. The owner condemned the illegal looting behavior after the disaster and expressed disappointment in the local business environment.
Before the incident, there were signs of local internet users calling for a zero-cost purchase at the snack shop, threatening with “no punishment for the masses”. Afterward, a netizen claimed to have looted 4 boxes of instant noodles, saying they punched a staff member in the eye corner and mocked, “What’s the use of reporting to the police?” There is a police station 500 meters away from the looted supermarket.
The newspaper tried to contact the police station but was unsuccessful, while the Zhaoqing emergency line operator mentioned that communication in the area had not fully recovered.