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A grower in Sakura City, Tochigi Prefecture, has been robbed of roughly 40 kilograms of brand-name strawberries, just as the fruit are reaching their peak harvest season.
At around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, a greenhouse worker from Sakurano reported the strawberry theft to police. Fuji TV reported that 30 kgs of Tochiotome—the best-known variety from Tochigi Prefecture—and 10 kg of the Skyberry brand that can sell for up to 700 yen apiece, were picked before they were due to be harvested.
Police said the stolen strawberries are worth about 40,000 yen.
The owner of the greenhouse said, “I feel frustrated that someone could easily steal something I’ve put a lot of hard work into growing.”
Police said the theft occurred between late Monday and early Tuesday morning. The grower said the greenhouse was unlocked.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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Bintaro
Gosh ! Nothing is sacred anymore !
quercetum
¥40,000 is not that bad though. It could have been worse.
englisc aspyrgend
And how will the thief realise the benefit of stealing them? Without the proof of provinence a reputable grower provides they could be any old strawberries so will not command the premium price.
DaveAllTogether
Don't worry. Captain Queeg will discover who the culprit is.
smithinjapan
While theft is a crime, I don't see this as grand theft. Sorry. They stole strawberries -- they should be 700 yen for a bushel, not a single berry. Blindfold someone and give them a piece of these crazily priced berries and a slice of the cheapest thing they can find and they will know no different.
GW
I am with Zichi on this one the math does NOT compute at all!
My office is near TONS of strawberry growers the closest green houses are about 25steps from where I am typing this right now, while I think the crazy effort to grow them in winter is a bit bizarre, they are VERY good.
I just googled Tochiotome & the images are of your average sized large-ish strawberry, there is NO WAY they would be selling for Y700 a piece, maybe for 12-15 good sized ones at best for Y700 unless they went through an obscene amount of middlemen & found the one fool willing to pay Y700 for one LOL!!!
WA4TKG
This will go down at "The Great Strawberry Caper of 2018".
It will be talked about for decades.
mph1212
Camera folks. It wouldn't be too difficult to put some up inside/outside a greenhouse. They don't cost that much nowadays and then you might at least get some idea of who was 5 finger discounting your grow.
puregaijin
zichi and gw, 40K is not the retail price of the stolen strawberries.
Disillusioned
Fruit and vege theft seems to be quite a common thing in Japan. - On a related note, the other day I saw an old lady taking strawberries out of punnets at the supermarket and stuffing them into her coat pocket.
greeeen
Which fruit or vegetable is next?