The police officer was montarily stunned. He instinctively looked at the docunt Qing Lan had handed over. On the docunt, it was arranged in columns: the first listed ID numbers, the second detailed the number of lons stolen, and the third suggested the fines.
For instance, the elderly person who stole the most lons, Number 1, had taken 34 lons and was recomnded an administrative fine of 1,500 yuan.
Others who stole fewer lons, mostly ten-odd to twenty-odd each, were recomnded a fine of 1,000 yuan.
Those at the end of the list, who stole the least—only single-digit amounts—were recomnded an administrative fine of 500 yuan.
"All these lon theft counts have been verified against surveillance videos, Officer. You can also check them yourself."
When the police officer didn’t speak, Qing Lan proactively handed over the surveillance video from the pumpkin patch.
This series of actions left the three police officers utterly stunned, unsure of what to say.
Similarly, Hu Wenning stared at Qing Lan with her mouth agape, completely surprised.
She had no idea about the table Qing Lan had prepared.
The day before, Qing Lan had asked her for the surveillance footage of the lon patch. She had thought Qing Lan was just curious. To her surprise, Qing Lan had even assigned numbers to these elderly people, from 1 to 65, neatly categorizing them and clearly organizing the number of lons each had stolen.
"Officers, you can rest assured. The data in this table is absolutely accurate, and the penalty recomndations also refer to the fine stipulations in the Administrative Penalty Law, using a tiered fine approach..."
Imdiately after, Qing Lan’s serene voice was heard. In front of the police officers, she explained in detail the thod of fines she had learned from Qin Mu.
An administrative penalty for an individual doesn’t typically require multiplier-based fines or fines adjusted for varying degrees of severity.
But this case involved multiple elderly people, so the fines couldn’t be decided arbitrarily. It was necessary to tailor the fines according to the severity of their actions. Only this would be reasonable.
And the three tiers of fines—500, 1,000, and 1,500 yuan—were the most suitable approach.
"Officers?" After explaining all this, Qing Lan looked at the three still-dazed police officers and gently prompted them.
"Ahem, this thod of dealing with it... seems quite reasonable for now." The three police officers snapped back to reality, giving a dry laugh. "Of course, the specifics will still depend on the actual circumstances of each elderly person’s theft."
The three exchanged glances. Then, they took Qing Lan and Hu Wenning to an office to begin reviewing the surveillance videos and compare the details of the lon thefts by the elderly.
The surveillance videos spanned thirteen nights in total.
On the first night, when the lon stealing initially occurred, only two elderly people ca to steal. After Hu Wenning discovered them, she didn’t take any drastic action against the two. Instead, she even gave the lons to them.
But on the second night, over a dozen elderly people showed up. They didn’t arrive all at once; it seed as if they had heard so rumors and ca one after another.
On the third night, a continuous stream of elderly people visited the lon field, totaling more than twenty.
On the fourth night, so elderly people, not satisfied with rely stealing lons, even brought large woven bags and small carts.
On the fifth day, so elderly people, claiming it was difficult to see the path at night, brazenly ca in broad daylight, pushing small carts and carrying scythes.
It was also on this day that Hu Wenning decided to call the police, but it had little effect.
That sa evening, the elderly people returned to the patch and vandalized the pumpkins, hacking away at them.
In the following days, different elderly people ca each day, taking varying numbers of lons.
"These fine recomndations... are indeed very precise." After comparing and verifying, the police officers looked sowhat conflicted.
Thanks to Qing Lan’s "help," what would have taken them an hour or two was resolved in ten minutes. She had also helped them resolve the difficult issue of how to assign the fines.
In all the cases they had handled before, this was the first ti they encountered such a "thoughtful" complainant, sparing them a lot of trouble.
"Let’s go. We’ll go see these elderly people."
Subsequently, the group of five walked out of the office and left the police station.
「Outside the police station.」
At this ti, over a dozen police officers were eyeing Zhao Dezhu and the others with serious expressions.
As for the elderly from Zhaojia Village, they were constantly cursing and shouting.
"You want to bla soone? Bla us! We just took a few lons. Arrest us if you have the guts!"
"How can you trouble other people like this? Is this how you handle things?"
"Hurry up and release them! If you don’t let them go today, we’re not leaving!"
"Right! Hurry up and release my nephew! He sells lons honestly in town. What right do you have to arrest him?"
"..."
The elderly were relentlessly demanding release, their attitude extrely belligerent.
However, after maintaining their standoff for more than half an hour, many of them were flushed and panting heavily, struggling to remain standing. Their bodies seed unable to bear it any longer.
This made the police officers extrely nervous as they watched, fearing sothing might go wrong.
"Folks, these pumpkins they sold are illegal proceeds from a cri. They must not be sold or concealed." The three police officers who had been with Qing Lan walked out and gradually approached.
Amiably, they patiently explained to the elderly people, "Their actions constitute the cri of concealing or hiding criminal proceeds, as well as profiting from criminal proceeds."
"We have already interrogated them, and they have all confessed."
They attempted to calm the elders by reasoning with them.
However, the elderly adopted a defiant and dismissive stance, imdiately cutting off their explanations.
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