Gunma prefectural police have sent papers on a 21-year-old former police officer to prosecutors in Maebashi after he was accused of stealing side dishes from a detainee’s bento (boxed lunch).
The former officer, who worked at Tatebayashi Police Station, was reprimanded with a disciplinary penalty on June 10, Fuji TV reported. He voluntarily resigned on the same day.
According to police and local media reports, the officer was on duty at the station’s detention center on May 9 when he stole a piece of grilled Pacific saury (worth about 50 yen) from a bento served to detainees. Police said he admitted to pilfering the food and quoted him as saying “I was hungry.”
The officer said he had been eating portions of lunches for detainees, who were in solitary cells, since mid-April. Because the inmates often didn't eat all their lunch, the officer said he frequently ate the leftovers. He told police he began thinking if he served the meals himself, no one would suspect he had snacked on them beforehand.
On May 9, he took the saury from a lunch box he thought would be served to a detainee in solitary confinement. However, another officer delivered the bento to a cell where several people were detained. The theft came to light when one of the detainees claimed he had fewer side dishes than the others.
Upon investigation, the authorities discovered a half-eaten saury tossed in the trash can used by staff.
© Japan Today
19 Comments
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Kiru Satsu
Seems rather bad, they should feed the police officer.
justasking
And with this prosecution, the taxpayers has payed 100,000x the cost of the stolen item.
shogun36
What a thing to lose your job over………
thepersoniamnow
Sent to prosecutors??? Like seriously?
You should not throw people in prison for these type of offenses. Much less a 21 year old with his whole life in front of him.
garypen
Getting fired? Definitely.
Prosecuted? That's going a bit too far.
Trapped
'the authorities discovered a half-eaten saury tossed in the trash can used by staff.'
Not so hungry after all, huh?
ushosh123
Doubt it was hunger that led to it.
purple_depressed_bacon
I have so many questions - was he doing it because his shift / superiors didn't afford him enough time to eat; or was he doing it to be spiteful? Inquiring minds wanna know.
Yrral
Stealing co workers food is a taboo,in any work place
theFu
When I was 16-25, I couldn't get enough calories. I was always hungry, extremely active, and fit.
But I never stole from other people's lunches when food wasn't available. I'd try to plan ahead and bring some high calorie snacks along. I learned the hard way not to bring a banana after leaving it in my backpack over a weekend. It had been crushed and the gooey parts destroyed an expensive ($150+) textbook.
When people steal others food, that makes me wonder where their parents were and how they were brought up.
juminRhee
A simple fine of whatever he had stolen and apology in front of staff & prisoners would have been sufficient.
He shouldn't even be fired, let alone have prosecutors involved.
WA4TKG
Lol.. pathetic
Yrral
Lots of jails in the US have commissary,where prison can purchase snacks on their credit ledger in the prison Google Harris County Jail Commissary
almostshat
Almost as bad as stealing someone else's food out of the fridge in a gaijin house!
theFu
There are food rules in most guest houses. Name/Initials + date. Any left-overs over 4 days old can be thrown out. "Share" was the keyword we used to let anyone know it was fine to take.
Produce was a judgement call. Whoever had the most to be thrown out would get stuck with the weekly clean-out job.
Kazuaki Shimazaki
I find it hard to understand the tolerance by many.
What about the importance of stopping the abuse of power, even by individual policemen? These people are already being detained for the convenience of the state. The least that can be done is to ensure the state's agents are not depriving these people of their State-issued food.