MORE than 10 men wielding knives made off with more than 2,000 kilograms of edible oil from three stores in a wet market in Bao’an District early Wednesday.

Employees of the management office in a nearby supermarket tried to stop the thugs who drove away in two cars. They reported the theft to police but the thieves also eluded police.

“These men in black arrived in two cars at about 4 a.m., armed with knives and guns,” said a man surnamed Zhang who was on duty in the market. Scared by what he saw, Zhang immediately picked up his mobile phone to call the police but was seen by the men. One of them held a knife to Zhang’s neck and told him to hand over the phone and squat on the ground, hands clasped behind his back.

The men, in two groups, moved the oil drums out of the three stores and loaded them into the cars. “The whole process took only some 10 minutes,” Zhang said.

A security guard at a nearby supermarket saw the men and ran to the supermarket’s management office to report the theft. After staff members with the management office failed to intercept the robbers, they reported to police.

One of the vendors surnamed Hu who suffered losses said he arrived at his stall at about 6 a.m. Wednesday to find that eight drums of edible oil were gone and severed chains used to fasten the drums scattered on the ground. “There was 210 kilograms of oil in each of the drums which was worth 1,800 yuan. Eight drums of oil were valued at nearly 15,000 yuan. It would take me more than half a year to earn that much money,” the distraught vendor said.

Three drums of oil were taken from two other stores. One of the owners known by his last name Zhuang said the two palm oil drums he lost were very big and heavy and were chained outside his store. “It would take at least three people to lift one drum,” he said.

The surveillance cameras installed near the market were out of order and the robbery was not recorded.

The theft is under investigation.

(Eunice Kang)