A woman in her 30s hailed police in a flap after the 1.2-m-long pigtail she had been growing for more than 10 years was suddenly lopped off in a crowded shopping mall on Saturday.

    Some heartless thief with a fetish for long locks struck near the exit of a crowded mall just before close of business.

    "I felt I lost something, reached for my pigtail and found it was gone," she told police patrolling the mall in Siping, Jilin province.

    "I've treasured my long pigtail so much that I refused to sell it to a collector who once offered me as much as 3,000 yuan ($436) for it," she said.

    (Beijing Evening News)