When you see thieves reaching out their evil hands to people, are you geared to help? If no, don't fret, for there are others to take your place.

"When I see robbers in the act, I can't help stewing myself into flooring them," said a young man, pulling up his sleeves and flexing his muscles.

The young man and his fellow buddies are neither policemen nor other thief-catching experts. Instead, they are college students --sports majors chomping at the bit to tackle thieves.

Several male students of the Guangzhou Physical Education Institute volunteered to organize a group, aiming to fight thieves preying on people near their campus. "Everyone is obligated to fight crimes, let alone us, seeing that we are sports students who are strong enough to fight thieves," they believe.

More than 20 students have joined the group and have caught 7 thieves in 4 attacks over a period of more than a month. No theft has been recovered, however. The group has thrown all seven thieves at the disposal of the police.

The thieves are habitual convicts that usually wander about street intersections near their campus, looking for cars waiting at lights.

The thieves are also professional. They rush to waiting cars, seize the car doors open, and then grab passengers' belongings (in the case of rolled-down car windows, they just stick their arms into the window and grab the things). Then, with theft in their hands, they skitter off across the street, down the opposite street and disappear, before passengers can even shout for help.

One of the group leaders, a track and field major named "A Ye," said he and others from the group perched atop the roof of the facing building to watch the thieves in action, trying to see how the criminals operate.

A Ye found the thieves would hang around the bus station of the campus, waiting for red lights. "The most irritating thing is they wouldn't run away after stealing from a person; instead, they always streamed back to steal more."

Another group leader, a large 1.8-meter-tall student named" A Fang," added the stealing mop is in a group ranging from 5 to 6 to even a score and conduct their "business" from 9 pm to 12 midnight.

"I was so eager to teach them a lesson that I nearly planned our course of action every night in my dreams," said A Fang, clenching his fists. "As sports students we are strong enough to catch them."

When asked why they didn't ask the police for help, A Ye explained they would stand aside if the police came. In the meantime, he said, "we will give the caught thieves to the police."

The students began to carefully plan their actions after they caught none in their first attempt. "Everyone should be patient enough in their designated task to wait for the best chance," said A Fang, summing up the lessons from their failure.

In the second attempt, the boys divided themselves into 7 groups and waited in ambush separately at the four corners at the crossroad with A Fang observing the whole scene on the building roof. A Fang's job was to alert his fellow guys via cell phone once the thieves got the theft.

"We wanted to catch them red-handed," A Fang explained.

However, their second attack ended with 4 men caught but without any theft. It was a furious fight. One group member, good at wushu kung fu, stuck a heavy blow on the back of one thief's neck. The robber fell down to the ground and was detained until being taken away by the police.

"We warned our members not to beat the robbers with our full strength. The important thing is evidence, anyway," A Ye said.

They caught another three men in their fourth attempt but again failed to find the theft. Some passers-by and other schoolmates rushed to bully the thieves, already beaten down to the ground, but A Ye and A Fang quickly stopped the furious people.

Some students have questioned the group's good deeds, saying it is none of their business. A Ye, however, ignored the doubts, saying: "At least, people are safer with some of the thieves caught," he said. "As we will soon graduate, we want to do something for the city before we leave."

Despite their contribution to the city, A Fang still fear that things will get out of control if a mob of people would ever insist on pouring their fury onto the robbers.

The local police also expressed their worry despite speaking positively of the students' social morality. One policeman said these young men are acting on the base of their hot-blooded youthful character so they may get themselves hurt or hurt the criminals badly (it is a violation of the Criminal Law to beat outlaws to disability or death) because of a lack of professional training.

The university official said students are not encouraged to do such things as their jobs, as "study is their main task." The official added, however, that the group's courage is a good expression of modern university students' fine spirit.

A criminal expert explained that anti-outlaw groups like this student group, though not professional, have their influence on public security. If well guided, non-official groups will become more instrumental in helping the government fight against criminals.

(China Daily February 5, 2006)