Beijing's Unrepentant Queen of Freeloading Gets Serious Jail Time After 14th Dine-and-Dash
It's the dream life: you retire from your factory job and begin your foray into luxury, but it's the kind of existence that your RMB 1,000-a-month pension would never be able to provide.
That's why you just strap on your new pair of Li Ning sneakers, enjoy the finer things in life, and just skip the paying part entirely.
That's exactly what 53-year-old Zhang Caiwen from Henan did, except she wasn't very good at the dashing part, and has been fined 14 times over a period of three – until finally being sentenced last week in Beijing to one year in prison for her shenanigans.
Man, this lady's got guts.
According to Xinhuanet, Zhang lived alone after getting divorced from her husband and cutting ties with her two sons.
Then, upon retiring in 2013, Zhang moved to Beijing and fancied living a luxurious life, so she came up with the idea of becoming the Queen of Freeloading.
Most recently, and the occasion that saw her finally sentenced to a year in jail, she was sued by the Beijing Taigong International Hotel in the Shifoying area of eastern Chaoyang District for refusing to pay her bill of RMB 8,107.6.
Zhang had booked a room at the hotel on April 6, enjoyed a nice relaxing massage and spa service, and opened a RMB 3,000 bottle of red wine to celebrate her birthday. The next day, she claimed that she had lost her wallet and was unable to contact her family to pay the bill. The hotel didn't buy the excuse, and neither did the police, who arrested her immediately.
During her court hearing, Zhang claimed that she was a freelancer, describing her position as being “in charge of freeloading. I wanted to visit the places that I haven’t been to, and if I wasn't able to afford that, I would spend wealthy people's money.”
Zhang was sentenced to one year in prison by Chaoyang district court, and with no semblance of remorse, immediately lodged an appeal.
This dance is not new to Zhang. She's been arrested 13 times before, according to Beijing News, all for dine-and-dash incidents: four times in 2014, nine times in 2015, and once in 2016.
After each incident she was arrested and put away in a detention house for 14 days, which would suggest that the detention house facilities aren't so bad – maybe because the food and accommodation comes for free?
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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
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Photos: Southcn, Aaronallen, qikserve
