A MAN attempted to kill himself after losing about 600,000 yuan (US$91,603) in gambling on the FIFA World Cup in Russia. He was saved by police.
On the night of June 20, Nanfeng Police Station in Guangming New Area received a call from a woman who sought help to save her husband who attempted to kill himself by jumping into a reservoir after losing money in World Cup gambling.
When police arrived at the scene, they saw the man, identified as Liu, sitting on the fence of the reservoir, upset. Seeing police officers, Liu became agitated and told them to stay away from him. The officers had to stay at a distance.
Liu told the police officers that he had sold his car and mortgaged his apartment for 600,000 yuan and he spent all the money in betting on soccer matches. Being a soccer fan and has been following soccer matches, “I thought I could win some money by betting on the winner of each match,” he told the officers. But the 600,000 yuan was all gambled away as he had bet on the wrong teams.
He wanted to win back the money so bad that he stole the money in his wife’s Alipay account and overdrew his wife’s credit cards. Liu lost it all again. He wanted to borrow money from his parents, but was rejected.
After listening to Liu’s story, police officers joked that it wasn’t Liu’s fault, but rather “Benzema should be blamed.” Karim Mostafa Benzema is a French professional striker for Spanish club Real Madrid and the French national team.
Though a strong, powerful and talented striker, Benzema is often scapegoated by netizens when Madrid loses a match.
After a two-hour talk, Liu was dissuaded from committing suicide and promised his wife that he would never do such a stupid thing again.