Be sure to check your toilets first while this fiend is still at large!

Although more known for the car company, Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture is also a place of sublime beauty. This city is home to the Senmi Shikizakura no Sato, a rare place in Japan which has cherry blossoms that bloom in both the spring and autumn, which means you can see pink sakura against a natural backdrop of crimson leaves.

It’s this location of pure natural wonder that makes a recent crime even more heinous. On the afternoon of 6 May a man was out enjoying the splendor of Senmi Shikizakura no Sato when his own brand of nature called and sent him to a nearby public restroom.

However, after having taken care of business he found that is was impossible to flush the toilet. Unable to see any lever, he may have assumed that it was a faulty motion sensor or that the toilet was clogged by a previous user, so he contacted the local tourism association to report it.

An investigation was launched and found that the toilet was in order but its flushing lever, valued at 20,000 yen (US$153) had been stolen. A search of the surrounding area also revealed that a sprinkler faucet worth about 10,000 yen had also been pilfered.

https://twitter.com/news_japan_s/status/1522562238380396544

A park rep told media, “I don’t think these items can be stolen without tools. I want patrols of the area to be strengthened.” They added that the men’s room would have to be closed for the time being, but a multipurpose restroom was still available.

Meanwhile, readers of the news were also appalled at this barbaric act.

“What has this country come to?”
“This is just ugly.”
“It’s theft, vandalism, and being a public nuisance!”
“Looks like the work of a pro too.”
“There ought to be a death penalty for something like that.”
“Wait a minute… A toilet lever costs 20,000 yen!?”

Yes, it would seem the thief was quite cunning in knowing the true value of a toilet’s flusher thing. Surely it would fetch a high price on the toilet black market somewhere. But worse than all this is the blatant cold-blooded disregard for one’s fellow man.

There are certain things that we take for granted in a society, and one of those things is that a public toilet we walk into is going to have a flushing lever. By stealing one, this person not only took an item, but they have stolen a thread holding together the very fabric of our society. I can just imagine that poor victim left with no choice but to leave his excrement for all to see in the center of a crime scene… Heaven forbid he had a meal heavy in corn.

▼ Some say that in the dead of night you can still hear a whisper carried by the wind saying: “fluuuush meeee…”

Dare I say this may even be considered an act of terrorism – to make us all unable to poop properly and lose the motivation to maintain proper governance, thus destabilizing the entire nation. Hopefully this person is caught before then, but in the meantime we urge our readers to exercise vigilance while using public toilets and make sure everything is in working order first. Stay safe out there!

Source: Mainichi Shimbun, My Game News Flash
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2)
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