Foxconn employee commits suicide over missing iPhone in China

July 22, 2009 Sun Danyong, a 25-year-old employee of Foxconn, jumped from the 12th floor of a residential building in Shenzhen, China and died on the spot after he lost a new sample of an iPhone mobile phone and was suspected of stealing it. Sun worked with Foxconn, which is one of the factories licensed to produce the iPhone in Guanlan, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, since he graduated from the renowned Harbin Institute of Technology last year.

Sun got the iPhones and stored them on July 9. The next day, he found one of the phones missing when he handed over the products to the receivers from Apple. So Sun reported the incident to the supervisor on July 13 after he couldn't find it. Foxconn's environment and safety department made an internal investigation into the case two days later. Before Sun committed suicide, he chatted with his former university classmates and said he suffered from an unlawful search, detention and beatings when he was investigated.

At present, the department head who had allegedly mistreated Sun has been suspended from his job and is being investigated by the police.