Police in Tokyo on Wednesday arrested a 16-year-old boy who threw full 2-liter PET bottles of water from a high-rise apartment building in Tokyo's Chuo Ward onto pedestrians below.
On June 7 at around 2:45 p.m., a 33-year-old pregnant woman, who was pushing a baby stroller in front of the 32-story apartment complex in Tsukuda, sustained a minor injury to her shoulder after she was hit by a full PET bottle, police said. In a second incident that occurred just before 7 p.m. on Monday, a PET bottle was again thrown from the same building, Fuji TV reported.
A local resident spotted the boy at the window and notified police.
Police said Thursday the boy admitted throwing the bottles out the window of his apartment and said he did it to ease his stress, even though he knew someone might get hurt. The boy said he wasn't getting along with his parents.
Local residents said that since March, PET bottles and vases have been found on the ground on a number of occasions.
© Japan Today
29 Comments
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sensei258
Once again, the parents will bow, apologize, and pay, and the kid will walk away.
Brian Wheway
25 MPH = 40 Kph...30mph=48 Kph....40mph=64Kph just for strangerland, I hope this helps. fizzbit, yes we use the correct form of measuring speed, miles per hour, and we also drive on the CORRECT side of the road.
nath
Isn't it? I wouldn't know - I speak metric, not American.
smithinjapan
Stranger land: 25 mph is close to the speed of light?
UK9393
@Brian, that's going to have to be a tall building to reach terminal velocity. Might --at a push-- get to 80% of Vt.
nath
That's close to the speed of light isn't it? Seems a little fast to me.
Brian Wheway
Ive googled the terminal velocity of this water bottle, but,Ooooh boy its very complex, may be I should have paid more attention at school, either way this 2.0 KG bottle is traveling around 25 MPH or possibly faster, it really is going to do some serious damage !
DaDude
Was this the sentence that made people here think that he is neglected by his parents and all of this is their fault? I guess I have to keep my future 16-year old on a leash huh?
bjohnson23
So sorry for the parents since they have to take responsibility and the school this kid was in as well. That is the system in Japan. This is why it is important to have manners class back into the school system.
smithinjapan
The building was a 32-storey high-rise, but it doesn't clarify in this article what floor the kid was on. Even if it was near the ground floor, though, it could have killed someone -- especially a baby. 2L from any height is quite heavy.
Kaerimashita
He could have had someone's eye out!!
UK9393
@Dykes, I was going to say that it's actually much 'heavier' than 2kg when it hits, but Yang seems to have it covered! This kid needs to be made a tough example of, stop others getting onboard the, 'Hey, lets drop stuff!' Crew.
Kapuna
Sixteen years old and stressed? He is going to be one unhappy salaryman.
gogogo
Charge the kid for attempted murder and the parents for child neglect
YongYang
Let's take the Height in meters as 25 --about 8 storeys-- the Mass we know as 2 kg. So Speed at impact: 79.69 km/h, about 2 seconds fall time. Energy at impact: 490.00 joules or 50 kgf*m (kilogram-force meters). Death from above, can't he be prosecuted for attempted manslaughter or something really very, very serious? He needs to go away for a long time.
Robert Dykes
That weighs 2kg (give or take a few tenths of a gram). Amazed it didn't break her shoulder.
nath
They were showing this on the news this morning - the woman (women?) had some crazy purple bruises from this. It looked very painful.
dsanjo
He needs a good beating. You can't reason with beasts. Rehabilitation has to come second. Seriously! What was he thinking?
Dan Lewis
Kill a baby? At the right height, it would kill an adult!
Christopher Glen
Spare the rod, spoil the child
onewrldoneppl
I've dropped water balloons but, a 2.0L PET bottle? This child is devious. Someone's neck could've been broken. Paralysis. Death. What was this boy thinking?
gogogo
Where are the parents?
Sioux Chef
What floor?
Wc626
Wonder if he kept a scoring tally: salary men +1 point, women & children 2, pregnant mom 3, foreigners 5 points.
nath
We used to use condoms. Much less dangerous.
dbsaiya
KnowBetter - amen to that, experience is the best teacher.
KnowBetter
Let me guess, he wondered what would happen if someone got hit with 2kgs of water in a container dropped from a tall building. Why not entertain the young lad and have him stand out on under those same conditions and drop a full 2 litre PET bottle on him so he ends that wondering.
Disillusioned
What a complete idiot! He could have killed the baby if he hit it. Let's hope this kid gets some counseling and not just a slap on the wrist.
ReformedBasher
Glad he was caught before something worse happened.