A preserved carp that might have been soaked in poison before being hung outside to dry to prepare it for use as a medical treatment was stolen last week, leading to a massive search in Xiangfan, Hubei Province, as authorities rushed to make sure that no one ate the potentially deadly fish.

The carp, which the owner initially said had been soaked in arsenic before changing his story while being questioned by police, was hanging outside of a private clinic when it was stolen last Tuesday, Chutian Metropolis reported.

Zhang, the clinic’s owner, said he was preparing the fish for use as a traditional medicine to treat nail ringworm.

“The fish can only be used for medical purposes, and anyone who eats it will surely die,” Zhang told the paper.

Zhang said he bought the 3-kilogram carp two weeks ago. After soaking it in the arsenic solution, he hung the fish in the doorway of his clinic, allowing it to dry during the day and bringing it in at night.

Zhang called the police immediately after discovering that the poisonous fish had been stolen at 9 PM last Tuesday. “The preserved fish was headless and the guts removed,” he said.

Fearing that someone might eat the fish, dozens of policemen from 31 police stations and hundreds of social workers from about 100 neighborhood committees in the city visited local residents and restaurants throughout the night, hoping to find the fish. However, their search yielded nothing.

News of the theft jolted the whole city, as police handed out tens of thousands of flyers to people on the street, and local TV and radio stations released updates on the search every half an hour. Reports about the fish reached cell phone users by short messages.

“Anyone who discovers suspicious headless preserved fish should call the police. Whoever took the fish should turn it over to police instead of discarding or burying it. And anyone who finds any suspicious dead cats or dogs should call the police,” police said.

But there was some confusion when police asked Zhang where he had got the arsenic from. The clinic owner recanted his claims about the poison, saying he had made up the story to scare away thieves.

By Sun Tzu on 08-02-2007