Burglar chews through steel bars

A news story (credited to the Chongqing Business Daily) is circulating about a recently apprehended burglar whose method of operation was to gain access to homes by chewing through steel window bars. From Ananova:

Detectives in Nanjimen region, Chongqing, were puzzled by continuous reports of break-ins through caged windows.
"Through our investigations, we found the grids had been cut but with deep tooth prints," a local police spokesman told the Chongqing Business Daily.
Eventually, their inquiries led them to interview a man who revealed he was sharing a hotel room with a man who could crack walnuts with his teeth.
Police brought in the man, Xiong, 23, for questioning and he confessed that he was behind the burglaries.
He revealed that he had turned to crime after failing to find a job and could not even remember how many houses he had broken into over the last two years.
Xiong told police he had grown up in a mountain town and had developed strong, sharp teeth by using them to open the walnuts which grew there in abundance.
He had found that he could chew open any steel bars up to 1cm in thickness, by prising open welding spots with his teeth.
"I only failed once in the past two years. Once I bit on a 2cm thick steel grid, and the first bite nearly dislocated my jaw," he said.
"I never take other tools with me when breaking in. That's why I never got stopped by patrolling officers at night."

Biting through steel bars was a stunt performed by strongmen back in the 1920s. Shorpy.com has a picture of Siegmund Breitbart, who claimed he could bite through steel chains. And steelworker Gust Lessis (pictured) claimed to be able to break a railroad spike with his teeth.

Still, Xiong's claim sounds pretty farfetched. I'm going to list it as undetermined.

Thanks, Ferret!

Law/Police/Crime

Posted on Wed Jun 17, 2009



Comments

Well, not exactly chewing through steel, but rather separating welds...but still impressive.
Posted by Canadarm  on  Wed Jun 17, 2009  at  07:50 PM
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