{"id":55,"date":"2002-05-27T06:40:00","date_gmt":"2002-05-27T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/blog\/?p=55"},"modified":"2012-12-13T12:50:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T12:50:37","slug":"the-ball-is-stolen-and-retrieved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/blog\/2002\/05\/27\/the-ball-is-stolen-and-retrieved\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ball is stolen and retrieved"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"sofvm_embed alignnone\"><div class=\"sofvm_video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Ball is stolen!\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6UGoiacMkog?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p>Yes, we very nearly lost The Ball in Xian. Our worst nightmare narrowly avoided.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sofvm_video_post_link\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/videos\/the-ball-is-stolen\/#respond\">Comment on this video<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Outside the Terracota Army near Xi&#8217;an (where I launched a beautiful <a href=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/blog\/2002\/05\/27\/warrior-on\/\">free kick over a wall of imitation statues<\/a>) there are many tourist-tat-traders \/ thieves. We were surrounded quickly, our pockets felt and as always the Ball received much attention. This warrior couldn&#8217;t resist a touch:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/195.10.250.63\/video\/mpeg\/xian_warrior_kick.mpg\">Click here to download the  MPEG clip with warrior&#8217;s kick and celebration dance<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Shortly afterwards, as our attentions were bombarded with diversions, I noticed the ball gone&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;asking Chris, Rob and Tim if they have seen our precious item, I get the response that the old man had it.<\/p>\n<p><b>The moment of theft &#8211; caught on film<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/195.10.250.63\/video\/mpeg\/xian_the_thief.mpg\">click here to download the MPEG movie clip<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Where is he?<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t know, I think he went that way, one of them says.<\/p>\n<p>I look in the direction of pointing, don&#8217;t see him and so hurry off. Asking along the row of stalls bordering the street, my football mime pays off as I am directed round the next corner. From there I finally spy the Ball 100 yards up the road being kicked further into the distance by a group of 5 or so. I  gently quicken my pace, not disturbing their flight, and reach them to be greeted by protestations as I ask for the ball back!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/195.10.250.63\/video\/mpeg\/xian_ball_recovery.mpg\">Click here to see Chris&#8217; footage of my final grab back<\/a>. You can just make out a guy to my left with his hand in my pocket who, as I turn back down the street, is suggesting that I give him 2 dollars for the Ball. I refused.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width:320px;height:240px\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/2002\/china\/xian\/ball_stolen.jpg\" alt=\"Phil recovers the ball from thieves in Xian\" \/><br \/>\nBall recovery from thieves in Xi&#8217;an.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sofvm_embed alignnone\"><div class=\"sofvm_video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Waiting at Xian train station\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nqHfxuQuz3E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p>One of us stays with The Ball at all times as we prepare to leave for Beijing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sofvm_video_post_link\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/videos\/waiting-at-xian-train-station\/#respond\">Comment on this video<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outside the Terracota Army near Xi&#8217;an (where I launched a beautiful <a href=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/blog\/2002\/05\/27\/warrior-on\/\">free kick over a wall of imitation statues<\/a>) there are many tourist-tat-traders \/ thieves. We were surrounded quickly, our pockets felt and as always the Ball received much attention.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly afterwards, as our attentions were bombarded with diversions, I noticed the ball gone&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china"],"geo":{"latitude":34.2583350999999964869857649318873882293701171875,"longitude":108.928611799999998765997588634490966796875,"description":null},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":729,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}