It was a whodunit mystery that had an apartment block in China’s Shaanxi province perplexed: why, constantly, were there puddles of urine in the elevator?
Suspicion, at first, fell on pets — but the spray patterns of the pee stains on the wall just didn’t add up.
So, after two weeks of mopping up mystery pee, cleaners decided to review CCTV footage.
In video for Saturday, June 23, they found their culprit: a 10-year-old boy, wearing a blue t-shirt, relieving himself in the corner of the lift.
According to China Business News, which reported the story, the youngster, in an act of contrition, promised to clean the elevator for a month.
On Sunday, one day after the discovery was made, the mother of the culprit joined a WeChat group for the apartment complex to take some of the blame.
“My actions as a mother have brought stress to everyone’s lives and I apologise to everyone for neglecting my duties,” she wrote, adding that she and her husband often reminded their son to “take care of public hygiene” but he never listens.
“After finding out about this situation, we scolded and educated him last night. He knows that he has done wrong and hopes you will all forgive him. He also wants to clean the lift as compensation.”
The mother also posted a photo of the boy’s handwritten apology.
“I urinated in the elevator today and would like to say ‘sorry’ to everyone,” it read.
“What I have done is uncivilized. It harmed the community’s environment, and could have caused the lift to break down, which would have put everyone in danger.
“I need to get rid of these bad habits – not urinate, throw rubbish or destroy public property. Please everyone keep an eye on me and forgive me.”
Cleaners said they have noticed the smell of urine in the elevator for at least half a month and believe, in fact, there could be more than one person relieving themselves inside.
A great plot twist would be if it turned out the kid’s parents were the elevator peeing masterminds, and had let their kid take the fall.
But, we digress. Funnily enough, this is not the first time a kid in the mainland has been caught with his pants down in an elevator; in February, a young boy caused an elevator in a Chongqing apartment block to malfunction after peeing all over the buttons.
However, instead of fessing up to peeing on the buttons, the parents of this boy said it couldn’t possibly be their son because “he can’t pee that high.”
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