Damage to property in public?

Heya,

So i've recently been made aware of a situation involving a tiny, specific group of people placing large paintings on the sidewalks in Hong Kong. Their intentions are for people to accidentally step onto their supposedly expensive paintings, then make them pay for the damages. I'm just wondering what can happen to those who do accidentally fall for this trap.

P.s. Not limiting this discussion to any particular region, but wondering what can happen if this happened anywhere.

Isn't that entrapment? BTW I'am not a lawyer.

@therealmoot: Entrapment is when an officer of the law is involved in inducing someone into committing a crime they otherwise would not have.

I don't know the law in Hong Kong so I can't say for sure.

I don't know crazy Hong Kong laws where cops shoot up teahouses while sliding down bannisters but I doubt that would fly in any sane court. The paintings are probably fake too.

I'm not a lawyer or anything but that sounds like some type of fraud. Anyway I think the point of stuff like this is to guilt/scare the victim into paying, regardless of the legality or actual damages. I don't know what I'd do if I was put in that situation, but calling the police might be a good idea.

@heyguys: Yeah, don't really know the law in Hong Kong either as i'm not always there. Definitely some "trapping" happening, just wonder how it would be dealt in somewhere like North America or Europe.

@audiobusting: Calling the police would definitely be a good idea haha, but to play devil's advocate, I guess you are technically damaging their property. Seems like a pretty hard case to prove the trapper is in the wrong?

But the ground in HK is like perpetually wet and soggy, so the painting is automatically ruined the moment it touched the ground.

There are similar incidents in Mainland China where someone would pretend to be hurt and lie on the ground, and when someone goes to help, they will claim to the cops that the person who helped them in fact caused their injury. Since Chinese people hate having to deal with legal stuff, there will likely be no witnesses and shit just gets settled out of court with some money.

@michaelsuen: True, not to mention the hassle with dealing with cops/court. I doubt that they will even let us call the cops, but there is the chance. I wonder if we can just run away? Then we call for help if they threaten us physically?

Depends what part of North America. I don't know anything about Canada, but in the US that wouldn't stand in court and the cops wouldn't do anything to you. Any North American country south of that the people are not likely to take that shit and if you are lucky they will simply tell you to fuck off.

This lady was being mugged the other day, and the cop shows up and does a flying kung fu karate kick to the guy, but then he grabs the lady and smashes her head in the car door!

That's a really shitty thing to do. Not familiar with the laws in Hong Kong, but I would like to think they have something on the books to prevent that sort of thing. If not, it's all to easy to scam people really bad. I hope nobody went to jail over this bullshit. That's all kinds of wrong.

@brodehouse: Did he take her purse too?

i'd tapdance on that shit.

He did, but then he just threw that shit on the ground! Stone cold.

I would confront the man and demand he pay for new shoes as they have been ruined with ink from his stupid painting.

@audiobusting: Actually seems like a good idea. If you accidentally step on someone's stuff, deny, pull out your phone, start filming, wait for the little tap from them, then fake an injury like you're playing for the cup in the Premier League.

@stonyman65: Yeah, unfortunately scams like that continue to exist i'm guessing simply because they continue to work?

@ripelivejam: *giggles*

I've been saying for years that I'd like to go back to Hong Kong. Playing Sleeping Dogs kind of made me "home sick" if you will.

But then stuff like this makes me think, "As someone who speaks Cantonese with a horrible accent at a barely serviceable level to begin with, with the ability to construct sentences in Cantonese like a 16 year old on Facebook on their iPhone; going to a city attached to a Communist country isn't a good idea. I'd come back in a body bag with a bill for the bullet they put in my head."