A thief on crutches in Zhejiang sneaks into shop to steal a phone, a few months after breaking his leg in a fall during another robbery attempt. Photo: Screenshot from video by Fei Dian Shi Pin

A hobbled thief on crutches in East China's Zhejiang Province tried to steal a phone from a ground floor shop that he limped into, months after falling from the fourth floor of a building during another attempted heist for which he was arrested. 

The bungling thief, surnamed Lian, 41, apparently fell from a high-rise building and fractured his right leg earlier this year while he was attempting to steal from someone's apartment. He's seen in a recent surveillance video posted by "Fei Dian Shi Pin" somehow managing to lift a heavy retractable steel gate and clumsily limping into a roadside shop, where he allegedly tried to steal a phone. 

Video taken at a police station shows two officers helping the man as he gingerly hops on one leg before being taken for questioning.

"We didn't suspect the disabled man until more evidence pointed to him," said the police, adding the man had been arrested several times for theft. 

 The video went viral and has been viewed more than 4.5 million times as of Monday.

"I feel sorry seeing him have to work this hard," wrote a netizen expressing some sympathy for the habitual thief.

"The Spring Festival is coming…I guess he wants to spend it in jail so he can have free food and drink," was a less charitable comment from a Weibo user. 

Fei Dian Shi Pin