Veteran contractor becomes senior thief.

A lot has been said about the reasons for Japan’s low crime rate. Some people point to Confucian philosophy, while others look for more modern factors such as high-density population centers leading to a strong sense of responsibility to be considerate to one another in all aspects of life, since there’s less physical buffer space between people.

A key factor that often gets overlooked, though, is that part of the reason Japan has relatively few thieves is because it has hardly any thieves who steal stuff just to be jerks. As a result, you’ll often see people leave things like handkerchiefs, pens, notebooks, or jackets unattended as they go to the bathroom while dining alone in a cafe or fast food restaurant. There’s not really much money to be made reselling those things, so why bother taking them?

So it must have seemed odd when the owners of a warehouse in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, noticed back in November that a single toilet bowl and water tank had been stolen. Sure, if someone had come in and taken a whole bunch of them, maybe they could sell off the entire set to a construction company for a nice wad of cash, but finding a buyer for a single toilet from a dubious, undocumented source wouldn’t be easy to do, and wouldn’t net the thief much profit from the caper. Also, this isn’t like cases of manholes or copper wire being stolen for their metal content. Porcelain can’t be melted down and repurposed, so there’s no monetary gain to be achieved by stealing a toilet for its material.

But the mystery was solved when the warehouse owners reported the theft to police and security footage showed that a 76-year-old man had let himself into the warehouse through its unlocked shutter and stolen the toilet. Investigators were able to identify the man as Kumi Yotsumoto, a resident of Chiryu, another Aichi town. When questioned about the incident, Yotsumoto admitted to stealing the toilet bowl, and when asked why, he said:

“I have been using the toilet that I stole.”

Yotsumoto’s job history includes working as a daiku, a term that’s often translated into English as “carpenter” but is often closer to “contractor,” in that it’s used for a broad range of roles involved in building construction, especially for houses, apartments, and other residential structures. After stealing the toilet, Yotsumoto took it back to his home, installed it, and had been using it up until when investigators came knocking on his door.

▼ It’s about a 30-minute drive from Toyota City to Chiryu, so it’s surprising that he apparently couldn’t find a toilet to steal that was closer to home.

As stolen property, justice would say that Yotsumoto should not be allowed to keep the toilet, but at the same time, it’s highly unlikely that the rightful owners want it back after he’s been using it for three months.

▼ Also, if the toilet is confiscated, do the police clean it, or do they have to leave it as-is, just in case they end up needing DNA evidence?

However, while Yotsumoto has admitted to stealing the toilet, he claims that that was all he took, and that he’s not responsible for the missing water tank. Assuming that investigators’ theory is that he would have stolen the tank to install within the toilet, their next task will likely be to remove the tank and check its serial number, so Yotsumoto may need to look for a replacement toilet while his case is ongoing, and hopefully will source it by more lawful means.

Source: Nitele News via Yahoo! Japan News via Itai News, Tokai TV
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