A female student at Tokorozawa City Central Junior High School in Saitama Prefecture entered the stall of a third floor restroom on May 15 but came across a suspiciously-left smartphone. She picked up the device and noticed that its camera was set to record video.
The student then took it outside and turned it in to a substitute teacher that was standing nearby in the hallway. The instructor, 27-year-old Reito Narita, thanked the student for reporting the suspicious phone and promised to turn it in to the principal.
As the girl walked away, a wave of panic washed over Narita. According to police, he had allegedly snuck into the restroom sometime after the end of school on the previous day and planted the phone to take videos. Now, he was tasked with turning in his own damning evidence.
With no time to spare, Narita rushed out from the school and went to the nearest smartphone dealer. He then purchased a brand new phone that exactly matched his model and returned to the school with it. Finally, he turned the new phone in to the principal with a report that it was suspected of taking voyeuristic videos.
When police arrived they not only found that there was there no video on the phone, but no trace of any video having ever been taken with the device ever. Thinking this suspicious, the officers decided to track down where the phone was bought. Since it was a new phone, it wasn’t a huge hurdle to trace it right back to Narita as being the owner, finally arresting him on May 25.
Readers of the news were both amused by the plan’s short-sightedness, and eager to suggest alternatives… some of which were a little too well thought out.
“What an idiot.”
“He was in way over his head.”
“The guy was just too horned up to think straight.”
“If he had bought one from a second-hand dealer he probably would have gotten away with it.”
“No. Even if you buy an old phone they still catch you.”
“Amazing that he didn’t think to just copy the data.”
“In this day and age where compact cameras are widely available, why use a smartphone to do that?”
“Even a second hand shop wouldn’t have worked. He should have destroyed the phone by soaking it in water. Sure, it would have been suspicious, but there would be no evidence to charge him with.”
“Why didn’t he have an alternate phone for doing this stuff instead of his actual phone?”
“I worry for these students’ futures, if these are their teachers.”
As always in cases like these, it’s fortunate that the culprit was allegedly dumb as bricks. However, there is a very important lesson to be learned for any students, anywhere who happen to find themselves victims of a hidden camera: if you come across a recording device, never turn it in to a male teacher who happens to be lingering around the bathroom where the incident took place.
In fact, why leave anything to chance? Just go and deliver that thing straight to the police yourself. Although a vast majority of teachers, principals, and school staff are caring and helpful people, there have been enough of these stories to know that no one is above suspicion.
Sources: Nikkan Sports, Itai News
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© SoraNews24
15 Comments
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TumbleDry
Wow...
Michael Jackson
Stupid, just do a hard reset
Michael Jackson
Or don't turn in the phone. Nobody would know
Vince Black
Muppet. Bye bye teaching career
Matt
Another sexually deviant teacher bites the dust. Good riddance to him, the perv!
kohakuebisu
More screening for prospective teachers and stricter penalties for anyone caught. Chuck em in prison.
Set up a nationwide sex offenders register too and ban people on it from name changes.
Ihaveaclue
What this teacher did was disgusting and deserves a permanent sex offender status, and jail time.
Before you go white washing women and thinking they are never to blame for taking illegal videos of victims, you might want to do your homework on where most of the illegal videos come from.
Disillusioned
It's a little disappointing to read the satirical overtones of this article. A teacher filming young girls in a toilet is an extremely serious offense and should not be treated lightly. This seems to happen very often in Japan. It's obvious the penalties are too light and not a deterrent. There is an unhealthy fascination with girls in many Japanese men. It is a serious illness that needs to be treated, not made fun of.
Luddite
Nope. No sex offenders register in Japan, so he'll just move elsewheer or change his name and start again.
HARRYO
So now the school contacts the girls who's privates were recorded and then the parents sue the school system for allowing this to happen to their children on school property by a school employee ...
Ricky Kaminski
This pretty much sums up the state of education in Japan nicely. Sorry, but twenty years in the trenches, you get desensitized to how far people will go to cover their own incompetence. High level stuff.
Joe Yan
Im more worried about the fact that this idiot is responsible for teaching our kids.
Toasted Heretic
I thought that as well. Seems to be a bit of a larf for some. Wonder if they'd feel the same if it was their kids being spied on by some dodgy voyeur?
quercetum
I have to admit the comments in the story outdid the ones here. We need to step up our game.