A 19 year-old male university student was arrested on suspicion of violating the Minor Offenses Act for attempting to video tape inside another female university student’s room.

The shocking part was how he came to be arrested.  Before starting the story, I would like to emphasize that this criminal was enrolled in an institution of higher learning, which should imply a certain level of intelligence.

According to Hyōgo Prefectural Police the suspect had placed his smartphone on the veranda of an 18 year-old female university student’s first floor apartment. He set the phone to record video of the inside of the young woman’s room at about 3:30pm on 6 August.

The same day, at around 5:30pm the woman noticed the phone which was set to “record” and contacted the police who sent by an officer to pick it up.

About an hour later the man returned to the woman’s home only to find his phone had disappeared.  From inside the room he could hear a woman say “the police have it.”

*At this point in the story it should be noted that in Japan it’s fairly common practice to immediately turn in lost items to the nearest police station or police box.

Thinking nothing about what he was about to do, the man strolled over to the police to retrieve his phone.  After they showed him some of the two hours of recorded footage, the student confessed.  He now faces charges of voyeurism.

I would like to repeat that this was a student of post-secondary education, which usually requires rigorous training and knowledge to enter.  I’m willing to forgive that he clearly thought that the woman thought he just lost his phone.  However, if you’re going to illegally videotape something you have to have rocks in your head to use a device with all your personal information saved on it and leave it unattended for hours.  I think it’s time to review Japanese universities’ entrance requirements.

Source: Yomiuri (Japanese)