What may have started out as a drunken prank has drawn outrage from the Chinese internet after a surveillance video has emerged online that purportedly shows three expats stealing an oversized teddy bear.

Weibo user Querida1221 said she has posted the videos in hopes of identifying the three suspects that were recorded at the scene late last Saturday night at an unidentified Beijing establishment.

The surveillance video shows one of the three expats surveilling the scene before disappearing out of view before returning to view holding the oversized toy before walking outside with the toy, which appears to be a version of James P. "Sulley" Sullivan from Monsters Inc.

Strangely, an expat woman that departed ahead of the other two in her group is seen gesticulating with her middle fingers up towards the ceiling as she stumbles around.

But what may seem like a joke to these expats has real consequences for the other people involved. Querida1221 said her father, who is employed as a security guard at the building, has been forced to pay RMB 3,000 in compensation while Sanlitun police authorities are said to have begun investigating.

Far from being a laughing matter, the theft has sparked condemnation by Chinese netizens. Referencing a pivotal moment from the Opium Wars, one commenter said, "Do these foreign trash think it's the Summer Palace from 100 years ago?" Another person sarcastically said, "How can it be called stealing when its done by these distinguished foreign gentlemen?"

As it were, late-night thefts committed by drunken expats of some unlikely targets isn't out of the ordinary in and around Beijing.

Last December, a Weibo user on her way to school one early morning managed to record three drunken expats stealing an oversized ice cream sign in Shanghai. In the early hours of a February morning last year, two drunken expats in Changzhou decided to rip a statue of Ronald McDonald out of the ground and take him home. And back during one late September night in 2015, a Beijing a drunken expat decided to steal a roadside video camera set up in advance for a marathon – all while being recorded by another video camera.

And then there are those late-night thefts where alcohol isn't involved. Back in 2011, an expat who was caught stealing outdoor tables from a Chaoyang Starbucks location simply explained to police that he was experiencing too much "stress."

In spite of the frightening situation she finds herself in, Querida1221 is still hoping for the return of Sullivan otherwise she and her father will undergo arbitration to try to lessen the compensation.

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E-Mail: charlesliu1 (at) qq (dot) com

Twitter: @Sinopath

Photo: Weibo