Reporter turns negotiator to stop man jumping off crane
'His life was in my trembling hands'
By Elysa Chen
August 31, 2010
Miss Law Shu Hui, 24, a Shin Min Daily News reporter, found herself thrust into the role of crisis negotiator yesterday.
And with a man's life in her hands.
The foreign worker had threatened to jump from a crane about eight storeys above the ground if he did not get to speak to her.
A construction worker, a Chinese national named Wang Yong, 37, had called the Shin Min Daily News hotline and threatened to jump unless he spoke to a reporter.
Miss Law said that he sounded very agitated as he kept repeating allegations about how his "manager" had treated him unfairly and not paid his salary for a few days.
While Miss Law was talking to him, she had an idea on how to coax him down.
She told him that looking up and talking to him was difficult and asked him if he could come down to make it easier for them to talk.
Two police officers held onto Wang's arms when he got off the crane.
He tried to shrug them off but she went up to him and told him that they would keep in contact by phone and that he could call her after he was released by the police.
He calmed down and nodded before following the police to the car.
