A new couple show their marriage certificates. Photo: VCG

Seeking a place to get away from his girlfriend's incessant demands to marry her, a thief in Shanghai told police he wanted to get arrested and that's why he tried to steal a Bluetooth speaker worth 2,000 yuan ($285). 

"I did it because I wanted to have some alone time and stay away from my girlfriend," the man told the police in an interrogation shown in a video posted by Litchi News. 

He said his girlfriend has been pushing very hard to get married.

A poster warning of the consequences of theft, gave him the idea that he could spend time in jail where his girlfriend couldn't "annoy" him, he said. 

Surveillance video shows the man wandering around the front desk of a dance studio and looking at the speaker before stealing it.  

The thief is now being detained for theft at a police station in Changning district, Shanghai.

"It seems he has succeeded in discouraging his girlfriend from marrying him now and for the rest of his life," wrote a netizen.