The People's Prosecutor's Office in Haidian District last Friday issued a warrant for the arrests of four people charged with stealing 23.5 kilograms of valuable grapes, Beijing Times reports.

On August 7, a patrolman spotted the four carrying an oddly shaped sack outside a kindergarten.

After opening the bag, the patrolman saw the grapes, which were a new species being developed by the Beijing Agricultural and Forestry Institute.

The grapes consumed and otherwise damaged by the four were valued at 11,000 yuan (US$1,325), an amount large enough to earn them prison sentences.

According to Tian Xiaoqiong, a law professor at the Central University for Nationalities, as the amount of the spoils exceeds 10,000 yuan (US$1,200), the sentences will probably fall between three to 10 years.

Close