Japan Today
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crime

Man arrested after sneaking into woman’s apartment and washing her lingerie

37 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

On the morning of October 30, a 28-year-old woman living in the town of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, went out from her apartment for the day. Unfortunately, she left her door unlocked, and sure enough, while she had been out, an intruder had let himself in.

As is not infrequently the case in such incidents in Japan, the man who had entered the woman’s apartment was targeting her underwear. However, the intruder was no panty thief, as he didn’t take any of the undergarments with him when he left. As a matter of fact, the woman might not have even known anyone had been in her apartment while she was gone, except for the fact that when she returned in the evening she noticed that her underwear had been washed and hung up to dry, along with some other articles of her clothing.

Now, there are many cases where someone doing your laundry for you is a convenient, and/or considerate thing, for instance if it’s your spouse or a maid service you’ve hired. This, though, was obviously not one of those desirable situations, and so the next day the woman went to her local police box and reported the incident to the officers on duty.

It wasn’t long before the culprit was in custody. Before the day was done, another resident of the apartment building the woman lives in came to the police box, bringing along a third resident of the building, a 50-year-old man, who admitted that “I entered [the woman’s] apartment without permission” and that he had washed the lingerie and other clothing.

The bizarre crime has left Japanese Twitter commenters baffled, with reactions including:

“What was he thinking?”

“It’s like one of those fairytales where gnomes do things around your house when you’re not home.”

“This sort of crime is on a plane beyond what my brain can understand.”

“If the circumstances had been different, he’d be a gentleman, but he’s a perv.”

“So he’s an underwear fetishist who’s also into cleanliness?”

“Washing underwear instead of stealing it? That’s some high-level perversion of its own.”

“It’s a very specific propensity.”

The man has been placed under arrest for trespassing. With the door having been left unlocked, it’s unclear if breaking and entering charges could be levied, as is what specific crime, if any, unauthorized laundry activities fall under, but at the very least it would seem like the apartment landlord has grounds to evict the man from the building.

As of this writing, the police are still investigating the incident and trying to determine a motive, but it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re not going to find one that makes sense.

Source: SBS via Yahoo! Japan News via Hachima Kiko, Twitter

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Gifu man arrested for entering other person’s home and hanging women’s underwear to dry

-- Osaka man finds stranger eating in his kitchen at night, stranger dies shortly after

-- Japanese panty thief steals over 700 pieces of underwear from coin laundry before finally caught

© SoraNews24

©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.

37 Comments
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Yet another sick, dysfunctional creep. Breaking into a woman's home is beyond the pale. Imagine how fearful she will feel going forward.

14 ( +16 / -2 )

If he mopped and did the dishes probably no one would have reported it.

11 ( +18 / -7 )

Intrusion is still intrusion, whether the door is locked or not. Nobody gave him permission to trespass.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Perhaps some of your jokesters should consider what he did with the underwear before he washed them. This is not a joking matter if you have a daughter or sister who lives alone in Tokyo. Too many of these weirdos looking for someone to violate.

9 ( +14 / -5 )

Intrusion is still intrusion, whether the door is locked or not. Nobody gave him permission to trespass.

Exactly! Even if he cleaned the whole apartment and left a bag of money, private property is private property.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

It is trespassing plain and simple. Probably other crimes too.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Well that's a new one. Did he do the laundry to avoid... ahem.... incriminating evidence?

4 ( +6 / -2 )

I'm glad he admitted it and didn't say...[I don't remember].

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Crikey!! this is a first..........or maybe not, it just has not been reported before. Maybe he should spend some time in a female prison, 6 months, and made to wash all their underwear. However, this is no joke, he violated her space and she will not forget this for a long time. For her this was NO joke.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This is something new. Never heard of this kind of perversity before. I hope he’s not setting a new trend.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Man arrested after sneaking into woman’s apartment and washing her lingerie

Juuuust when you think you've heard it all...

“It’s like one of those fairytales where gnomes do things around your house when you’re not home.”

HAHAHAHA! THAT was Classic!

“This sort of crime is on a plane beyond what my brain can understand.”

Same here.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan's pervs are on a whole different plane!

If he wants to, I'll leave my door open and he can clean my skiddies any time he likes! LMAO

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I think the article and police are not asking why he did that. Hopefully he didn't leave his mark on them, then wash them.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

This guy is mentally unfit. No normal person is doing something like that. He should consult a psychiatrist.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

In NYC it is called Sniff & Wash

0 ( +3 / -3 )

In NYC it is called Sniff & Wash

And you know this because...?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I thought again about this after making my first comment, I am living with my girlfriends parents just now, and if her father did this type of thing to my underwear I would leave the house immediately.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Come on JT, now why is this news!?? and if someone is bent publishing do it but NOT in the headline section for heavens sake, it is somewhat degrading to have it there!

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

So strange... Not the worst outcome of leaving your door unlocked I must say.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

The bra in the photo came up very clean. Good job sir!

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

What a nice guy, he is definitely marriage material!

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Whatever the mind of man can conceive, he can achieve.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

He can wash my underwear.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

A panties fetishist with a powder addiction?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

That really was BRA,zen!

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

I wish a man would sneak into my place and wash my undies. I've never quite understood why some men think lingerie is sexy. I do, but only when the woman is in it. Otherwise it's just laundry. Oh, maybe he was just trying to do a good deed.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

I hope he didn’t wash the colours with the whites….

There are some real messed up units in this world!

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

I guess his plan went 7i7s up.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

What a laugh you should always lock your doors at all times I’m sure the guy was like lucky time to go panty sniffing and rest of the nasty story and washed her clothes after his mess and hangs her clothes.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

He didn’t like the original smell?

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Looks like he was just trying to clean up his act, but he ended up in a real spin cycle.

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

It really does look clean and shiny.

Perhaps there must be an unforgettable thankful from inner heart of a woman which kept to herself but somehow needed to report as so much curious drooling in her mind to see who he really is. Handsome - Hmm..ticked. If not, then getting some kind of compensation.

-11 ( +1 / -12 )

Free in home laundry service is a crime?

I'm okay if I come home and a woman is washing my dirty draws. Who would be the perverted one then?

-16 ( +5 / -21 )

He just want to give a help right? However 28-year-old male try to do washes for 50-year-old that sounds strange.

-18 ( +1 / -19 )

The photo by the looks it must be an minus A cup

-18 ( +4 / -22 )

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