Chinese police get top credit for Avengers: Endgame cinema stake-out

ZHEJIANG (China) — Police in eastern China waited until a Marvel fan finished watching the three-hour Avengers: Endgame movie last week before detaining him as a suspect in a romance scam.

The man, only identified by his surname Liu, was watching the blockbuster with a female companion in a theatre in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday night when police arrived after being tipped off about his whereabouts, Zhejiang Television’s Channel 6 reported on Monday.

To minimise disruption for other moviegoers, police stood outside the cinema where Liu was watching the superhero epic and nabbed him as he left, the report said.

China was the first country to screen the Marvel Studios film starring Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Hemsworth and Brie Larson, among others.

The movie has smashed box office records, pulling in more than US$1.2 billion globally so far. In China, it has earned over 104 million yuan (S$21 million).

There were nearly 100 moviegoers in the cinema house in Hangzhou and officers did not want to ruin their experience, the report said.

Liu, who was caught by police at around 3am, has been accused of tricking several women out of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

One of the victims, surnamed Wang, lent Liu over 300,000 yuan on various occasions after he asked her for money to start a business. She got suspicious and called police earlier this year after realising Liu had another girlfriend, police said, without giving further details.

The patience exhibited by the Hangzhou police won widespread praise on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, where the film was eagerly anticipated and has been hotly discussed.

Many contrasted it with the way Shanghai police dealt with a controversial doctor-patient dispute on the same day.

A surgeon at Renji Hospital was dragged away in handcuffs during work after he fought with the husband of a patient who jumped the queue. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST