So, I recently left the country in a hurry.  I wanted to leave before I was sued.  But I want to know what would have happened if I had stayed.  Here's my story:

I rented an apartment and on the day I moved in the water was shut off in the building.  I hired an ayi to come in and wipe things down so I could unpack things.  The movers unloaded a truck full of stuff and after three hours of unpacking, I paid the "Ayi" and we left.  I went back to my old apartment to watch some tv.  

Around 5 hours later I got a call from the real estate guy who had given me my keys that morning.  He said my downstairs neighbors had called him because my apartment was flooding two apartments below mine.  The "Ayi' had turned a faucet on while she was cleaning and when water didnt' come out she didn't turn it off.  Water had been running for hours unchecked for hours.

I'll skip most of the clean up drama.  I called everyone I knew and told them to come over  for a mopping party.  The neighbors were irate.  Screaming, banging on the door.  I had just watched a video on Chinasmack about a walmart employee who had spit in some lady's face for hitting his car with her bike - a mob formed and they beat his car to pieces.  As I heard my neighbors doing the same thing to my door, I panicked.

The police arrived.  They wanted me to come downstairs so they could give me a ticket.  I told them I was busy.  (I was trying to drain a swimming pool sized problem with a mop.)  He didn't press the matter.  After 4 hours of cleaning, most of my helpers went home and a Chinese friend came in and gave me the news.  Each of my downstairs neighbors wanted 60,000 yuan in damages.  I didn't have that much money. 

But I also knew I wasn't the one who turned on the water.  I had been unpacking, not cleaning.  And the faucet that was one was a floor faucet in the bedroom hidden behind a curtain that I didn't even know was there.  IT was the old cleaning lady.  But she had worked for me for three hours and had only asked for 15 yuan.  I KNEW she wouldn't be able to afford the charges.  I couldn't  ruin her life.  I couldn't blame her.  Not when I could take the blame and easily leave the country.

So I left the apartment with my friend and his parents and we started walking to my old place.   It was past midnight, and as we walked we talked.  I had decided to leave but I also knew that people don't tend to think rationally when they are in stressful situations.  I also knew I had no understanding of the law in China.  Was I was responsible for the damages if I wasn't the one who had turned the water on?  I hadn't even had the place for more than 15 hours!  What would happen to me if I stayed.  I asked my friend's parents what I should do, and they said I should leave China before I was sued.  So I did.

I snuck back upstairs, packed one suite case and left a moving truck full of my belongings inside the apartment.  

I couldn't get a flight for the next day, so I spent the morning at my old place.  I found the cleaning lady for my building and invited her upstairs to my old place and todl her she could take anything she wanted.  She took it all.  Then I drove to my milky tea place and said goodbye.  I went next door the the jewelry store and gave the lady there my dog.  THen I drove to friend's house and hid out for a day before my flight left the next morning.  

I made it through customs just fine.  But I kept looking over my shoulder.  I got to Beijing, but didn't try to cash in my money because that would need my passport and what if it was flagged?  Please remember I have already admitted to thinking irrationally when under stress.  I made it through security again but when I was on the place that would take me back to America, we were going down the runway and then we weren't.  The captain came on and said we were turning around.  Then he explained it was for some flight reason.  But just for a second my heart stopped.  They had found me.  

I know my "crime" is small and they only do stuff like that for drug lords and what not, but I still got to live my own version of The Bourne Legacy for a few days.  It was a quite exciting.  but now I wonder - was it all for nothing?  Was it even necessary?

So here are my questions:

1.  What do you think happened to my stuff?  I figured they might sell it.  But who gets the money? THe landlord, whose woodent floors were damaged?  THe neighbors?  The real estate guy?  OR did they just throw it all away?  Divy it up amongst the neighbors?

2.  The real estate guy called my friend's dad the next day asking if he knew where I was, that perhaps  had run.  How long before they unlocked the apartment and figured I had abandoned it?

3.  What would have happened if I had stayed and could not pay the money?  Jail or deportation?  

4.   Is there a way, other than applying for a new z  visa, to know if I am black listed? 

5.   I heard a few days ago that the neighbors are going to sue the landlord now.  Do you think they will win?  She wasn't even in the city when it happened.  

6.  What would you have done?