Taiwan Quick Take: Cops hunt thirsty thief

Police are hunting for a thief who climbed up three-story-high coconut trees to drink their juice by drilling holes in them, local media reported yesterday. A woman surnamed Huang, 76, in Tainan County, told police that she harvested six large, green coconuts on Wednesday only to find that a hole had been drilled into each of them and the juice removed, probably drunk by means of a straw, the Chinese-language daily, the United Daily News, said. The owner of two dozen coconut trees, Huang could not imagine how the thief or thieves climbed the trees and drank the coconut juice. Neighbors, however, suspect that workers building the nearby high-speed railway might be the culprits as there are ladders and tools at the construction site that could have been used in order to steal the juice. Huang said thieves had previously stolen coconuts, but they were cut and taken away. She feels especially cheated this time as she continued to care for the coconuts and harvested them before she realized they were juiceless.