Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This is the moment a cheeky baboon picks up a zookeeper’s mobile phone and reportedly places online shopping orders for her without her knowledge.
The unusual incident happened on 6th November as zookeeper Lv Mengmeng was shopping on e-commerce site Taobao ahead of the infamous shopping rush known as Singles’ Day.
The 24-hour shopping spree was popularised by Alibaba, which owns Taobao, with the company reporting record-breaking sales of 268 billion RMB (29.9 billion GBP) this year.
Ms Lv, who handles baboons at Yancheng Wild Animal World in East China’s Jiangsu Province, had placed several items in her shopping cart ahead of Singles’ Day, but the monkey reportedly completed the purchase while playing with her phone.
CCTV footage from the zoo shows the baboon grabbing Ms Lv’s phone when she is not around, lifting it and apparently checking out without her knowledge.
Ms Lv said: “The baboon was hungry, so I left to get some food without my phone and left it open on the Taobao website.”
When she returned, she found several notification on her phone informing her that her orders had been placed.
She added: “I thought someone had pranked me. I had no idea what had happened, but then I checked CCTV footage which showed the baboon using my phone and tapping on the screen.”
Ms Lv, who raised the baboon from an infant, said the purchases made were a few inexpensive household goods, but she missed out on the chance to buy them at a discounted Singles’ Day price.
The baboon handler says her phone does not have a password lock, and automatically approves small purchases under a certain price, so the checkout was processed without the need for authentication.
Ms Lv said she did not ask Taobao for a refund.
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