Promotional material for Time Raiders, a film about tomb robbers Photo: VCG

A man in East China's Jiangsu Province got an eerie call from his dead father-in-law's phone, just hours after burying him.

The man surnamed Xu in the town of Xiaji had given his father-in-law a traditional Chinese funeral that included burying some personal belongings including his phone. 

Seeing the caller ID was from his father-in-law's phone, Xu was terrified and didn't answer the call, Knews reported on Monday.

Perhaps realizing it wasn't a ghost, Xu contacted police, who soon discovered the dead man's tomb had been robbed. Police says the thieves also stole money and a radio from the tomb, and even ate the family's traditional offering of apples.

Police soon arrested a pair of tomb-robbers surnamed Liu and Xia. Xia, who is deaf, said he called Xu on the dead man's phone by accident.

Xia and Liu were accused of committing more than 10 other crimes in 2018 and were recently sentenced to seven months in prison.  

Knews