Police called over bland watermelon in China

[yuiyoshida]

A policeman's photo of a report filed went viral online because of the ridiculous nature of the case: a customer disputing with a vendor over a bland watermelon which the vendor refused to refund.

The story has been verified by paper.com and confirmed by the Nanjing police bureau in Jiangsu province.

The police saved the situation by buying back the watermelon from the customer. Moreover, the police wrote down his own honest opinion of the watermelon on the report: it did taste bland.

Internet users found the policeman's comment funny, and also cast doubts over whether such trivial cases warranted police attention.

- See more at: http://www.soshiok.com/content/police-called-over-bland-watermelon-china#sthash.Qct72hSl.dpuf

[Bugenhagen]

1. Good for the customer

My wife returns lousy produce on a regular basis. The distributors shouldn't be trying to pawn off their lousy fruit on us.

We live in Alaska where peaches and tomatoes often arrive rock hard and then transform to mush without ever gaining any flavor. Centralized distribution is the bane of decent food. The worst part is that expectations are so low here that most people just seem to accept it.

[Bugenhagen]

2. Also, hats off to the policeman

The police shouldn't have to be solving problems using their personal bank accounts, but what an elegant way to diffuse the situation and slightly shame both involved parties so that they, hopefully, will act better in the future.

[tblue]

3. So let me get this straight:

Dispatch took the call and decided they needed to send a cop, and the cop actually drove to that store, tasted the watermelon, gave the customer some money, and then wrote an official report?!

You sure that wasn't Florida?

BWAAAAAAHAHAHA!

[Princess Turandot]

4. His ad hoc solution may have staved off a case of melony manslaughter..

Seriously, things like this have been known to escalate irrationally (and quickly). The mad customer knocks some melons to the ground, causing them to crack. The mad melon man throws one at him.