Tokyo police say teen stole over 100 boxes of razors, and not so that he’d be freshly shaven for his beloved idol singers.
Being an enthusiastic idol singer fan is not, by any means, a cheap hobby. Since the appeal of most idols lies as much with their youthful aura and looks as it does their musical talents, producers churn out CDs and merchandise at a breakneck pace. Then there are the mini-concerts, handshake meetings, and other special events for which admissions can only be gained by buying even more associated merch.
Add it all up, and it can drain the bank accounts of adults with full-time jobs, so the situation can be particularly tough for idol fans who’re still in their teens themselves. But one young man, whose name is being withheld, thought he’d found an excellent way to take care of his idol expenses.
But while the second-year high school student, whom we’ll call “I-kun,” was pleased with his plan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police were less enthusiastic about it. According to the police, I-kun went on a shoplifting spree back in January. But rather than stealing the idol merchandise he coveted, I-kun was after a single, more mundane item: replacement shaving razor blades.
▼ Turbo riches?
The police report states that around 8:30 on the night of January 31, the 17-year-old I-kun entered a convenience store near Higashi Nakano Station in Tokyo. While there, a clerk spotted him shoplifting boxes of razor blades, and so the employee summoned the police.
The officer who arrived on-scene searched I-kun’s bag, and inside found 87 boxes of blades. The subsequent investigation determined that these had been stolen earlier that day from a total of seven shops in the area, at which I-kun had swiped all of the blades that were out on the shelves. A search of I-kun’s home turned up a stash of 33 more boxes, bringing the grand total of his capers to a nice, even 120 boxes, with an estimated collective worth of 420,000 yen (US$3,800).
▼ They’re like really sharp gold coins.
On March 30, the police announced that I-kun has been arrested and officially charged with shoplifting. The master thief/idol fan explained that he started down the path of crime when an acquaintance approached him in mid-January and said he’d trade I-kun 10,000 yen for 10 boxes of razors (working out to 1,000 yen per box vs. the average sale price of 3,500 yen for the stolen razors found in I-kun’s bag and home).
However, it seems that I-kun assumed that the real world works like a role-playing video game, in which acquired items can always be sold in unlimited quantities. The fact that he was essentially warehousing such a huge stockpile of razors indicates that he massively overestimated how many he could sell, and suggests that his activities on the day he was caught were wholly unnecessary.
In other words, if you are a student who’s considering a life of crime, maybe it’s best to at least wait until your economics class gets through the discussion of supply and demand.
Source: Asahi Shimbun Digital via Hachima Kiko
Photos ©RocketNews24
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