The chaotic scene of a road accident that took place last week outside of Yunnan, China, turned into a free-for-all when a truck carrying 30 tons of oranges overturned.
Pictures from the scene showed several villagers swarming the citrus-covered site, picking up as much fruit as they could and carrying it off in crates.
The truck driver reportedly told Shanghaiist that many of the oranges were damaged from the spill, but that did not deter the villagers from taking advantage of the situation and helping themselves to the harvest.
This particular fruitful accident couldn't have occurred at a better time -- just two weeks away from Chinese New Year. The biggest holiday in China is a time when oranges are in high demand, as they are symbols of wealth and are traditionally exchanged among people during house visits.
It is widely believed by the Chinese that the amount of oranges you received is a measure of the good fortune that will come your way for that year.
Giant spills of food or livestock are a fairly common occurrence in China; local media outlets seem to report on one every other month. Here are five other truck spills that happened on China's roads in the past year.
Chicks
In August last year, Mashable reported on how a cargo truck carrying tens of thousands of fluffy chicks had tipped over in Shandong, and commuters grabbed the opportunity to abscond with as much live poultry as possible.
Snow pears
A week before said chicks incident, a lorry carrying a load of snow pears crashed on a highway between Chengdu and Mianyang. Nearby villagers took matters into their own hands and helped themselves to the juicy fruit, even forming a work line from the lorry to their own vehicles to transport the pears home.
Repeated warnings from police to stop the looting were ignored.
Catfish
A truck driver found himself in a slippery situation when his vehicle carrying seven tons of catfish spilled out onto a Guizhou highway after the door swung open while the truck was in motion.
Luckily for the driver, firemen and local residents came equipped with hoses to keep the fish alive while the truck was reloaded. No looting was involved.
Crabs
When a van collided with a jeep in October in the middle of a busy street in Changsha, a load of live crabs and one alligator spilled out from the van.
It reportedly took five minutes for pedestrians to clear the road, but they had no intention of returning any of the crustaceans to the driver. The driver was left with only the alligator to take home.
Bees
Last November, a truck transporting 200 bee hives rolled over on a national highway in Yunnan causing its angry passengers to scatter across the roads. Not surprisingly, no opportunistic looters showed up and firefighters were dispatched to rescue the trapped drivers.
