A Chinese man was too focused on watching water freeze to notice his phone is taken away by passer-by in northern China.

The video showed the man, surnamed Xin, was happily splashing water out from his kettle on the road and watching it freeze. He then got back to his house, without noticing that his mobile phone had fallen to the ground and was later picked up by a man passing by.

Mr. Xin then searched in CCTV recordings for six hours to find the person who picked up the phone. The passer-by asked Mr.Xin for 1,000 yuan(about £116) to return the phone back. They later negotiated and agreed on 200 yuan(about £23) to get the phone returned.

The video was filmed on Dec. 29 in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, and provided by local media with permission.

A Chinese man was too focused on watching water freeze to notice his phone is taken away by passer-by in northern China.