Very rarely does the headline for an article about a crime start with the word "hilarious", but - in this case - there is no other way to describe the events that went down in the Chinese city of Shanghai. It all happened last week, on Valentine's Day, when two would-be
burglars were caught on CCTV trying to illegally enter a warehouse.
Footage shows them getting up to the building just fine but, when it comes to actually getting inside, they apparently encountered a bit of a problem with their breaking and entering techniques. You see, rather than attempting to pick the lock or seek out an open window, the pair of genius criminals thought that the best method of gaining entrance to the building would be to lob a brick at it.
Can't see how that might be a problem? Well, the ensuing events might make you think twice about that.
As seen on the CCTV footage, both men came readily equipped with large bricks, and had been intending to use them to enter the building all along. As planned, the first guy stepped forward to throw his missile - only for it to bounce right back and land nearby.
Unfortunately, the second guy didn't anticipate that his friend would immediately go and collect the brick, so, as he wound back his arm to throw his own stone, he had no idea that his target was about to be obstructed by his friend's head.
And, by the time he realized what was about to happen, it was too late.
In a split second, the first criminal was knocked out cold by the brick. His accomplice immediately panicked, and hurried to drag his friend away before the pair of them got caught. All of this takes place in a matter of seconds, and you can watch the drama unfold for yourself here:
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Within hours of its original posting, the clip was shared by more than 20,000 people on Chinese social media, and the footage has already attained over 15 million views on Weibo after being shared by the Shanghai police department.
Obviously, the pair's bungled attempt at burglary caused a flurry of jokes, with many people comparing the pair to the
incompetent bandits from Home Alone.
"Mind if we rob your place? Knock yourselves out!" said one commenter.
"How are we going to get into this place? Easy, when I nod my head you hit it with a brick," wrote another.
The identities of the criminals are not currently known, and the condition of the injured man has not been established, either. Some people did express their concern for him on social media, as obviously a hard blow to the head with such a heavy object can do some serious damage - but others believed the injury to be "instant karma".
A spokesman for the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said: "If all burglars were like this, we wouldn’t need to work overtime."
One thing's for sure, though - these criminals can't be accused of not using their heads.
