Yahoo Finance Chinese police use facial recognition to catch man accused of stealing £12,000 worth of potatoes at concert of 20,000 people
Authorities in China have arrested a potato-thieving concert goer using facial recognition technology.
The technology managed to locate Mr Yu who was wanted for allegedly stealing £12,711 worth of potatoes as he attended a Jacky Cheung concert.
The technology picked him out of a crowd of 20,000 attendees at Jiaxing Sports Ceter in Zhejiang.
Shen Yueguang from the Nanhu District Public Security Bureau said: “A few minutes after he passed through the security checkpoint, our system issued a warning that he was a wanted person.”
Mr Yu was accused of not paying for 110,000 yuan (£12,711) worth of potatoes before then fleeing Zhejiang province.
According to the South China Morning Post, Mr Yu had been living under his younger brother’s name.
Mr Yu was detained by police at the venue.
It isn’t the first time a fugitive has been spotted at a Jacky Cheung concert.
In April, a 31-year-old man was detained after facial recognition technology found him in a crowd of 50,000 people.
He was arrested at the venue for "unspecified economic crimes."
Facial recognition technology is widely used in China.
In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, authorities use facial recognition to find jaywalkers. Once spotted, they are sent a message with information on their "crime" and also a fine.
Earlier this year China announced that it would be banning people from planes and trains if caught "spreading terrorism rumours" or "causing trouble on flights."
According to the country's National Development and Reform Commission, people found to have committed these acts would be put on a restricted list that could see them banned for up to a year.
It’s thought that people found smoking on trains and those who fail to be pay fines would also be put on the restricted list.
