Yellow balloons placed on apartment window was supposed to be a 2020 New Year's greeting. Screenshot from Sina Weibo
Police of Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou Province were called to an apartment block after a resident's window greeting that was supposed to welcome the 2020 new year seemed to signal "SOS" after the last number fell off and the numerals appeared backwards from the outside.
In a video clip posted by Guangzhou Daily on Tuesday, three big yellow balloons are seen in the window of a high-rise residential building, which could easily be mistaken by neighbors looking up for an SOS signal.
"The balloon shaped like a zero was broken so we could only put up the numbers '202,'" the resident, who is a kindergarten teacher in Guiyang, told local police on Saturday.
The woman's unintentional call for help worried a local resident, who called police as soon as he saw the SOS signal on the window.
The teacher removed the three balloons and thanked her neighbor and police for their concern.
The video received nearly 10 million views on Sina Weibo after it was released on Tuesday.
"The neighbor did the right thing. Everyone knows what SOS stands for," said one Sina Weibo user.
