Around 20 tons of pears worth 80,000 yuan spilled out onto a highway in Chengdu, Sichuan province yesterday after an accident caused a produce-loaded truck to overturn on the road.
Within an hour, villagers got word of the accident and began pouring into the scene carrying baskets and bags, SCMP reports, citing accounts of onlookers.
The villagers were well-organized: some filled the bags with pears, others loaded these in nearby cars and vans, while others drove the fruit back to the village, [a witness surnamed Wang] said.
A traffic policeman and the truck driver tried to stop the villagers, without success, as they waited for a crane to arrive.
Similar accidents have resulted in yogurt bottles, melon seeds and live crabs being strewn about China’s highways, resulting in a grab-fest for nearby residents and massive losses for the poor truck drivers.
The owner of the pears, who arrived to survey the damage at around 9:00 a.m., didn’t mind villagers taking the fruit on this occasion as it was too damaged to sell.
[Images via Hauxi100.com]
