Officer Zhang Hongjiang, who has caught many thieves in his time, recalled one of his more interesting captures - a pickpocket granny - in a Beijing Evening Post article.

"You'd never suspect an elderly woman like her to be a pickpocket," said Zhang, one of more than 20 top-level officers with the public transport police force.

The grey-haired 58-year-old woman, dressed in a nondescript grey coat and carrying a blue nylon bag, stood on the crowded bus just as any other woman her age might have done.

But when she volunteered to give a stranger directions to a post office, Zhao saw her hand reach out towards the man's hip as she talked to him and retrieve a roll of cash.

While he couldn't quite believe his eyes, Zhao grabbed her by the hand in which she clutched the stolen money.

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