The law’s arm really is long!

A common anecdote of customer service in Japan is having a clerk chase you down the street and trying to catch their breath as they hand you a 10 yen (US$0.06) coin that you accidentally dropped. However, this door swings both ways and those who dare rip off such businesses may also find themselves pursued to the ends of the country for it.

Such a case started back on 17 September, when a 41-year-old man was attempting to steal two packs of ground beef worth 184 yen ($1.17) from a supermarket in Sapporo City, Hokkaido Prefecture. A 56-year-old security guard had caught him in the act, but as he tried to stop the man, he was shoved in the chest and failed to apprehend the suspect.

▼ I know this is neither the time nor place, but two packs of beef for 184 yen is an amazing deal!

Image: Pakutaso

The shoplifter fled the scene on foot but police were able to track his movement using their extensive network of surveillance cameras on the street and in train stations. It wasn’t until 23 December that they finally located him in Chita City, Aichi Prefecture. For those unfamiliar with Japanese geography, that’s roughly halfway across the entire country or more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) by most modes of transportation.

▼ A map showing the distance between the crime and arrest

We’ve seen Japanese police’s impressive tracking skills before when they were able to find the whereabouts of four people who flipped over a light truck in Shibuya on Halloween and disappeared into a sea of 40,000. But this might be a distance record, at least in relation to the severity of the crime.

Walking down many streets anywhere in Japan, you’ll be sure to see cameras posted here and there. These allow the police to keep tabs on where a suspect flees. Even if they duck into a train station, the police have a camera pointed right at the ticket machine and watch which buttons are pushed to narrow down which stops they would get off at. Thanks, to Japan’s impeccably punctual train system, cops can figure out when suspects would get off a train with amazing accuracy.

▼ Next time you use a ticket machine or go through a ticket gate, look over your shoulder and there’s sure to be a camera on you.

Image: ©SoraNews24

Upon this suspect’s arrest, he denied the charges and claimed he had no memory of the incident. Hopefully, it’ll come to him eventually, because readers of the news online are completely baffled as to why he would steal a pack of meat when he seemingly had the funds to travel so far. Others were equally confused as to why the police would sink so many resources into finding such a petty thief.

“That’s extremely impressive, but maybe do it with more important criminals.”
“All for some ground beef…”
“Was this done using AI? Because if it was just people, it’s pretty amazing.”
“Did he spend more money on the getaway than what he stole, or did he just stowaway on something?”
“He could have bought so much beef with the money he spent getting to Aichi.”
“If they can chase this minced meat bandit across the country, why can’t they find the guy who stole my bike helmet right in front of a camera?”
“The police must be getting bored there.”
“Meat is so expensive now, it’s probably a high-risk item and the police want to set an example.”

There is no doubt that the cost of apprehending this suspect was far, far more than the damage caused, but the economy of crime investigations is generally seen as more of an investment in future crime prevention rather than balancing the scales for that particular crime.

Take bank robberies for example, although complete figures are hard to come by in Japan, a scraping of news reports from recent years would indicate that the amount stolen in an average bank robbery seems to hover around the one million yen ($6,300) mark. Meanwhile, the average police officer’s monthly salary about 460,000 yen ($2,900) per month.

Let’s conservatively assume that five police officers are required to investigate a robbery: a lead detective, a forensic expert, someone to talk to witnesses, and someone to check the surveillance footage. If those guys spend about two weeks investigating this bank robbery, the cost of labor alone would already have surpassed the amount stolen. However, the point isn’t about recouping costs but putting the message out there that robbery has consequences which they expect would prevent future robberies from happening and be worth it in the long run.

▼ To protect and social engineer

This is also partly why that guy in the comments didn’t get much help with his helmet. Cracking the case of the bike helmet is extremely low-profile and as such has little or no value for crime deterrence. This would also seem to suggest, however, that there must be one hell of a meat-stealing problem in Sapporo that police would go to such lengths about it in this instance.

Whatever it is that’s going on there, the message is loud and clear: Don’t mess with anyone’s ground beef in Sapporo!

Source: FNN Online Prime, Itai News, Gyakubiki, SSRN
Featured image: Pakutaso
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