Online shopping is undeniably an addictive pastime for some, where one spends his/her money like it’s water on items they think they need.
However, this addiction led to the death of a woman in China, who was stabbed by her father over an online shopping debt of up to 1 million yuan (close to RM650,000).
Addicted since 2019
According to Xinmin Evening News, 30-year-old Liu Juan (alias) and her father Liu Gang (alias) both worked as security guards at a local train station, earning 3,000 yuan (RM1,952) to 4,000 yuan (RM2,603) a month.
She soon became addicted to online shopping in 2019, where she would purchase lots of items every one to two days and this was reflected in the family’s credit card statements.
In fact, her online shopping got so out of control that the family would find themselves receiving multiple packages a day, to a point where there would always be a new package at the door before older packages were unwrapped.
Unable to pay online shopping debt
When the moment came for her to pay up, Liu Juan realised that she was unable to do so.
Desperate to clear off her debt, she turned to her father for help, who was unable to pay it off alone.
As a result, he was forced to dig into his savings and even borrowed money from a relative.
However, this didn’t deter Liu Juan at all, who went on to buy more stuff and even borrowed 400,000 yuan (RM260,371) from her aunt to pay off the additional debt.
She also took an online loan to fund her shopping habit.
Unbeknownst to Liu Gang, he had no idea about his daughter’s reckless spending until he started receiving calls regarding repayments, straining the relationship.
More money borrowed
Increasingly frustrated over his daughter’s spending habits, Liu Gang poured his heart out to relatives and asked for more money to pay off the debts.
Although the relative willingly lent him 20,000 yuan (RM13,018), it still wasn’t enough.
On the same night, Liu Gang was having dinner with relatives and got intoxicated.
When one of them told him that Liu Juan may have borrowed money from loan sharks, Liu Gang declared in a drunken stupor that he would die with his daughter due to the debt.
That relative later lent Liu Gang 30,000 yuan (RM19,527) before the latter went home.
Stabs daughter out of anger
Upon returning home, Liu Gang got into an argument with Liu Juan over debt repayments.
In the midst of the heated argument, he took a fruit knife and stabbed his daughter. Following the murder, he called the police and waited for them to come over.
Liu Gang was later convicted of intentional homicide by the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, where he was sentenced to 15 years in jail and denied of his political rights for four years.
Such a tragic story. We hope that this serves as a lesson not to spend beyond your means!
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