50-year-old man arrested over Mandarake robot toy theft

Dork. Should have flogged it on ebay or craigs list ;p

Under pressure from the police, the store decided not to post the suspect’s face on its website.

Pathetic actually. Name and shame the guilty perp imo.

Dork. Should have flogged it on ebay or craigs list ;p

Yep, it would have been easier to get away with it

Pathetic actually. Name and shame the guilty perp imo.

And yet the guy was caught. Perhaps those "pathetic" police knew exactly what they were doing....

Given the coverage of this story and the item involved his ability to on-sell was limited. If it had not been, I wonder if it would have been reported by the store (who knows what he had already tried to do). There are many gray areas in Japan about what is acceptable and what is not - no cultural criticism, just an observation. But it is geared more to the gray than the black and white. This guy stole an expensive item (please forget what was) and tried to sell it. That is theft and another crime of attempting at selling stolen goods. The original store probably gets ripped off regularly - good on them for trying to fight back.

And yet the guy was caught. Perhaps those "pathetic" police knew exactly what they were doing....

No. It sounds more like the place he tried to sell it at noticed and contacted the police. It's hard to not notice the thing that was stolen and was all over the news the previous week.

No credit should go to the police. All the credit should go to Mandarake. Because they made the story get on national news. A shoplifting story! If they didn't do that, the store he went to to sell it probably wouldn't have known it was stolen and asked for his ID.

The theft of a Tetsujin-28-go robot toy worth 270,000 yen -

The price has gone up by Yen 20,000.-? it was Y250,000.- when this news reported by JT on 13th Aug.

Thieves are really stupid these days.....

lucabrasi: "And yet the guy was caught. Perhaps those "pathetic" police knew exactly what they were doing...."

Not really -- they just got lucky the guy was dumb enough to take it to a used-goods shop and even show ID, and it's precisely because of the coverage that the shop owner knew to alert police (if he didn't know beforehand and hence asked for ID so he could get the name before calling the cops). Definitely should have tried to sell it online. He would have gotten heaps more for it.

@Probie & smith

Yes, the shop deserves a lot of credit for publicising the theft, but the police were happy with that; they acted just to stop the shoplifter's face being revealed. If the shop had shown his face, then he probably wouldn't have tried to sell the toy in person, but gone online, as some here have suggested he might have done, and not been caught.

So, much as I'm no cheerleader for the cops, I reckon they got it just right here.

There is also a network by which shop-owner's can be notified about stolen goods, etc. For large ticket items the police can also notify the shops plus other info not made public.

What's the difference between shoplifting and theft? (Most likely he will be charged with larceny).

@Joe

Shoplifting is one type of theft. So are pickpocketing and bag-snatching.

ah yes the thief got caught or fell under pressure! Good now off with his hands!

According to Anime News Network, he turned himself in.

Many of the comments here are totally off the mark. The alleged thief took the toy to another store and sold it to them for 64,000 yen. As is normal the store asked for ID and he showed his (non-photo) health insurance card. The store did not refuse to buy the item nor did they notify the police. The police went to all the stores in the area that might deal in such an item. They found an item that resembled the stolen one, found a man on the store surveillance video who resembled the man on the video from Mangadarake. They got his info that the store had got from his ID. They got him to come in voluntarily for questioning. At first he denied the theft but later confessed. This is according to TV news reports, Mainichi Shimbun online, etc.

they should have posted his photo. in fact all retailers should post photos of all shoplifters where they can clearly be seen from the video. in a society that is regulated by haji (shame) and where face is important, it makes sense.

in fact all retailers should post photos of all shoplifters ...in a society that is regulated by haji (shame) and where face is important, it makes sense.

So what happens to the retailers when they get it wrong ?

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140820p2a00m0na010000c.html

... he later reportedly admitted having taken the toy, saying that he intended to sell it and buy monster figurines that appear in the popular Ultraman series. ... told police he thought of stealing the toy when he saw the glass window of the display case ajar, and they suspect he acted on impulse.