Ingenious hack helps hungry woman beat coronavirus lockdown

The car was fitted with a box and camera. Photo / AsiaWire/australscope

This video - seen over three million times - shows an ingenious Chinese woman using a remote-controlled toy car to do her shopping while she stays indoors amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Bun lover Chen Xiangjun lives in a gated community in the city of Jinan, capital of Shandong Province in East China.

Like many others, the 28-year-old has placed herself in self-isolation and committed to staying at home as much as possible in order to prevent an infection by the Wuhan coronavirus.

However, she needed a way to continue running her daily errands, including making trips to the shops in order to buy food, so she did so by combining the chore with her passion for high-end remote-controlled cars.

Instead of buying packets of buns on foot or by bicycle as she did before, Chen latched a trailer to the back of her toy 4WD and sent that instead.

A camera attached to the front and back of the remote-controlled vehicle live-streams the toy's whereabouts, and allows Chen to direct it through her residential area straight out the front gate.

Amusing footage shows her community's security guard even opening the pedestrian boom gate to let the toy car through, while at the supermarket her shopping is placed right in the trailer before she drives off again.

Chen wanted a feed without the risk of infection. Photo / AsiaWire/australscope

The bun buyer and her remote-controlled toy cars. Photo / AsiaWire/australscope

Chen told local media: "I love remote-controlled toy cars, so I modified one with a trailer and a two-way communications device.

"I connected it to a 4G network to see real-time footage of where it was going.

"I took the lift and carried it downstairs, then drove it out the east gate of our community. The security guard now always opens the boom gate when he sees it.

"I left my mobile phone number on the toy car, so I got to the supermarket, I asked the owner to add my WeChat account and then I transferred money to him."

Chen said she would then disinfect her remote-controlled car before sending it out again.