A security guard, when questioned by police, expressed surprise, saying, "I often saw Ma coming in at night and genuinely thought he was working overtime!" The man referred to, surnamed Ma, was originally a maintenance technician in the workshop of an automotive manufacturing plant in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. Having joined the factory in 2018, he was considered a seasoned employee. However, no one anticipated that this "veteran worker" would embark on a path of no return after a "chance discovery."

One day, Ma noticed a batch of leftover copper electrode caps while stacking materials in the welding workshop. Gazing at these seemingly insignificant but "valuable" copper pieces, greed took hold of him. That very night, he pretended to come to the factory for overtime work. After swiping his card to enter, he sneaked into the workshop. Handful by handful... he stuffed the copper electrode caps into his pockets, carried them out of the factory area, and hid them in the trunk of his car parked at the entrance.

Initially, he was somewhat apprehensive. But after several days passed with no one noticing the missing copper parts, he repeated his "overtime" act. Through such ant-like搬运 (ant-like搬运: a Chinese idiom meaning moving small amounts repeatedly), over ten times, he accumulated around 100 jin (approximately 50 kilograms) before selling them off.

After that, he became uncontrollable, frequently coming to "work overtime." It wasn't until late April this year that staff noticed a significant decrease in the number of copper electrode caps and temporarily installed monitoring equipment in the workshop. At 3 a.m. on May 10th, public surveillance footage captured an employee entering the workshop and leaving quickly. Staff immediately recognized the person as Ma. They then checked the clock-in records and factory gate video, discovering that Ma's outer pockets changed from flat to bulging as he entered and exited.

Consequently, the boss decisively reported the case to the community police officer. Following the leads, the police apprehended Ma at his rented residence on the morning of May 14th.

According to Ma's confession, from March 2025 to May 2026, he stole copper parts at least 10 times per month on average, totaling over 150 instances. Currently, Ma has been lawfully placed in criminal detention, and the case is under further investigation.