Weasel "stole" tourist's car key, whole village dug for 4 hours to find

(Dan Tri) - A tourist's trip to Southwest China suddenly turned into a "treasure hunt" when his car keys were taken by a weasel, forcing the whole village to dig together to find them.

According to the South China Morning Post , this rare incident happened on August 3 in Genie Town (Litang County, Sichuan Province, China). The owner of the stolen car key is a person with the nickname Dog Brother on social media.

He said that while he was hanging out with friends, a marmot - a rodent of the squirrel family that usually lives in high mountains - suddenly grabbed his car keys and crawled into its hole.

Fang, a female member of Dog Brother's team, said her group visited an area with many weasel burrows, where the animals were emerging to find food.

Weasels are rodents found in many mountainous areas (Photo: South China Morning Post).

Seeing the rodents, Ms. Fang’s son excitedly ran to the car to get fruit and snacks for them. The group members placed the bags containing food, phones and car keys next to the meerkat’s den, and then engrossed the children in playing with the animals.

"Unexpectedly, when I was not paying attention, a weasel took the food from my pocket and dragged the car keys down the cave, right before our eyes," Fang recounted.

As soon as they discovered the key had been "stolen", the tourists immediately used sticks to poke down into the cave but failed, so they had to call for help from the villagers.

A viral video shows locals and tourist volunteers quickly gathering together to dig and "sweep" the area around the weasel burrows to find the key.

"They thought of all kinds of ways to get the key back, even calling local herders to help. They tried using magnets to attract the key, using steel wires to poke into the cave, and trying many other tools. Finally, the village chief and local leaders also joined the search," Fang told Jiangxi Provincial Radio and Television.

The search lasted from 3pm to 7pm before being successful: The key was pulled out of the cave by a powerful magnet.

Many people in the area joined hands to search for the car keys for the tourists (Photo: South China Morning Post).

The hilarious incident is reminiscent of a similar incident in Litang last month, when a sports camera was taken down to a cave by meerkats while tourists were feeding them. Unlike this time, the camera was never found.

After two consecutive incidents, local authorities have warned tourists not to feed the meerkats, due to the potential risk of disease transmission and bites causing infection.

The story quickly became a hot topic of discussion on Chinese social media. One netizen humorously commented: "Perhaps in the cave, the weasel is filming a video showing off: 'Hello everyone, I just bought a new car today'."

Another person joked: "With both a sports camera and car keys, the weasel must be preparing to become a travel blogger."

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/chon-dat-cuom-chia-khoa-xe-cua-du-khach-ca-lang-dao-boi-suot-4-gio-tim-20250816214747089.htm