A security guard expressed his surprise to police officers, saying, "I often saw Mr. Ma coming in at night and thought he was genuinely working overtime!" The Mr. Ma mentioned was originally a maintenance technician in the workshop of an automobile manufacturing plant in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. Having joined the factory in 2018, he was considered a veteran employee. However, no one expected this "experienced worker" to embark on a path of no return due to a "chance discovery."

One day, while in the welding workshop where materials were stored, Mr. Ma noticed a batch of leftover copper electrode caps from processing. Looking at these seemingly insignificant yet "valuable" copper parts, greed stirred in his heart. That evening, he pretended to come to the factory for overtime work. After swiping his card to enter, he sneaked into the workshop. One handful, two handfuls... He stuffed the copper electrode caps into his pockets, then took them out of the factory area and hid them in the trunk of his car parked at the entrance. Initially, he felt somewhat anxious, but after several days passed without anyone noticing the reduction in copper parts, he repeated his "overtime" act. After more than ten such instances of pilfering, he accumulated around a hundred jin (approximately 50 kilograms) and sold them.

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

Consequently, the employer decisively reported the case to the community police officer. The police followed the leads and arrested Mr. Ma at his rented residence on the morning of May 14. According to Mr. 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, Mr. Ma has been criminally detained according to law, and the case is under further investigation.