Though the nation’s Civil Code stipulates that those who return lost money to its owner could ask for a 30 percent reward, how would it be applied if somebody “picked up” a NT$1,500 pig?
Police said that on Wednesday morning, a miniature pet pig named Zhuzhu (豬豬) was wandering around Jieyun Road in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Sanchong District (三重) when it was picked up by a cab driver, surnamed Hung (洪), who brought it to the police department.
The police said Hung stressed that he wanted the 30 percent reward when the police located the pet’s owner.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The Civil Code regulation that the owner give one-third of the returned item’s value as a reward to people who find lost items was made to encourage people to do good, the police said, adding that they never thought someone would actually ask for the reward for picking up a lost pet pig.
“They want 30 percent for bringing in a pig,” a policeman said while shaking his head. “Do they want a leg of pork?”
The pig’s owner, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was unhappy when he learnt of the request, asking how he was going to divide his pig into three pieces, adding that Hung was lucky he was not being sued for theft, as someone had seen him taking the pig.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
According to Hsieh, he bought the pig two months ago. The pig liked to walk from the car wash store that he owned to the nearby park and back again, Hsieh said, eating and drinking whatever it found along the way.
The pig acts like he owns the street and walks around looking about. The pig has become a daily sight, one of the neighbors said.
According to the neighbors, on Wednesday at 6am, a cab driver saw the pig walking around and loaded it into his cab. The neighbor who saw the incident had written down the license plate number and told the police about it.
One of Hsieh’s friends speculated that Hung went to the police claiming he found a lost pet because he knew he was seen taking it.
Though Hsieh finally got his pet pig back, he did not leave Hung even a red envelope as thanks as is customary, the police said.
This was on grounds that Hung kept asking for a third of the pig’s price, which Hsieh thought was unreasonable, saying that pets’ value could not be measured in terms of money, and that neighbors witnessed Hung taking the pig, the police added.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
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