Man Who Threw Himself Onto Moving Car Arrested on Suspected Fraud

A Hong Kong man is going viral on social media for his exaggerated act of being hit by a car after dash cam footage showed him throwing himself at a slow-moving car before rolling continuously on the ground for an extended period.

In the past 20 years, there have been numerous cases in mainland China of swindlers throwing themselves onto moving or even stationary vehicles, pretending to have been hit by them to demand medical expenses.

On Jan. 1, a suspected fraudster appeared in Hong Kong, but a dashboard camera inside the car recorded his actions. The dashcam video clip was posted on social media, and it instantly turned viral. In the clip, the man is seen running and jumping on the car before rolling approximately 80 times on the ground for two minutes, The social media was filled with netizens’ ways to count the number of rolls he made.

According to the dashcam video, the incident happened at 2:04 a.m. on Jan. 1. as the car slowly turned left into Argyle Street, Mong Kok, towards Kowloon Tong.

A woman in the car immediately screamed: “Wow, wow, what are you doing? Who are you? What are you doing here?”

The guy then slid down, pretended to walk a few steps on the road as if stunned, and then fell onto the road, spinning and rolling and yelling, “Oops, Oops.”

Then he continued to spin and roll on the road. The people in the car were puzzled by the man’s behavior and discussed how to deal with it.

The man kept rolling for about two minutes and rotated about 80 times. Afterward, an ambulance passed by, and two ambulancemen stopped at the scene to learn what happened from the woman in the private car involved. As they walked towards the man, he suddenly stood up and returned to the pavement.

After being checked by the paramedics, it was found that the man suffered no superficial injuries. After being sent to nearby Kwong Wah Hospital, he refused to receive medical treatment and left on his own accord.

The female driver reported the incident to the police, who later arrested a 27-year-old local man surnamed Tai on suspicion of “criminal damage” and “violation of the Road Traffic Ordinance.”

The suspect has been released on bail pending further investigation and must report to the police in early February. There were no reports of casualties in the incident.