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Taiwan police crack case of abandoned pile of mannequins

Strange case of abandoned mannequins in Hsinchu solved by tracking barcodes

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Proper waste disposal is no laughing matter.

Proper waste disposal is no laughing matter. (CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Hsinchu Police Bureau announced Friday that the person responsible for dumping over a dozen mannequin parts along Dong An-li Road in Hsinchu County is in police custody and will be punished for his crime.

Earlier this April a pile of mannequin parts was discovered along Dong An-li Road in the Kuanhsi Township of Hsinchu County. The pile included adult and child mannequin parts and gave passersby an eerie fright, especially at night, reported BCC News.

Police were able to hunt down the culprit by tracing the origin of the barcodes discovered on some of the mannequins, functioning like DNA for these plastic people, explained the Head of the Dong An Police Station, Liu Si-wei (劉思偉).

Taiwan police have been cracking down on cases of improper waste disposal in order to better protect the environment.

The police traced the barcodes to a mannequin manufacturing plant in Taiwan, who had entrusted a mover, surname Chen (陳), to transport the dummies to a warehouse in Changhwa on February 13, where they would then be transported to a waste management center, according to CNA.

Chen's moving business was too overbooked at that time however, and Chen passed the job on to a friend, surname Fan (范), who owned a second hand retail business.

Fan confessed that after he received the shipment, he kept the valuable mannequins for himself and then discarded the rest in Hsinchu County along a road he thought to be less traveled.

Fan is now being brought to justice for his crime in accordance with the Waste Disposal Act.