A CHILD was rescued from abductors in Shenzhen after being forced to work as beggar and performer for two years.
With the help of Shenzhen police, Shi Peng, 12, was reunited with his father at Fuyong Police Station on Tuesday.
The boy s father, who lives in Zhejiang Province, came to Shenzhen immediately. I could not believe my eyes, he said when he saw his son.
Shi was abducted on his way home from school on a bus in 2009. He recalled eating a piece of cake he had been given by a stranger and then fell asleep. He woke up to find himself in a van filled with steel rims, stools and cages of snakes. It turned out he had been abducted and sold to a traveling troupe of more than 10 disabled people, children and two men who watched over the group. The youngest member was a 5-year-old girl, Shi said.
For two years, the troupe traveled to many places in two vans, begging and performing. The two men threatened Shi that if he did not do as he was told, he would be starved and beaten.
Shi said he had once tried to escape but was caught and badly beaten.
He did not dare to try to escape again until a day in December last year, when the two guards were drunk at a birthday party. The troupe was then in Shajing in Shenzhen.
The boy ran away, hopping on a bus and somehow made his way to Shenzhen International Airport. He stayed in the airport terminal for more than two months.
Shi said a cafe employee surnamed Li and an air hostess whom he called Sister Lulu had taken care of him, buying food and clothes. After being asked repeatedly by Li, he finally told of his experience.
(Helen Deng)
