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A 53-year-old man was arrested on Monday on suspicion of theft, after a convenience store employee saw him take a rice ball set from the shelves and leave the store without paying. Police said the employee held the man until police arrived.
Tokusuke Ogawa, unemployed and of no fixed address, told police he took the wrong train from Akita on Saturday. He said that after getting off the train in Shinjo City, Yamagata Prefecture, and paying the train fare, he had less than 100 yen on him.
Ogawa told police he took part in a ramen speed-eating contest organized by Shinjo City on Sunday in conjunction with the Shinjo Snow Festival. Ogawa said that he was able to fill himself up and enjoy the festival, but that he became hungry again later that night.
© News reports
24 Comments
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ultradodgy
Wow. File under "Slow News Day"...
nath
Bored shop clerk commended for heroic behaviour, pins down undernourished old man.
Altria
Where did he place in the ramen-eating contest?
How about publishing the names of the winners?
Also a link to the website for this ramen-eating festival for interested readers.
aintgottimetobl
an old homeless guy knocks off an onigiri so the staff calls the coppers ??? hope he got fired for heartlessness,just taking it back off him and snarling would have sufficed,surely..
Stonefish
What was the estimated value of the rice ball?
oreoreda
The irony is the store would probably have thrown away the onigiri at the end of the day anyway.
yabits
A pittance, compared with what involving the police and all the attendant paperwork and legal gyrations will cost.
Sarge
"just taking it back off him and snarling would have sufficed, surely"
THat reminds me of the scene in Black Rain:
Masa Matsumoto: Theft is theft. There is no gray area.
Nick: Hey, Masa, New York is one big gray area, OK?
Stonefish
Which just goes to show that crime doesn't pay.
shoguinn1
Send me the bill for the Rice ball I'll pay for it.
Dennis Bauer
Free riceballs in the holding cell!
Tezbo
Good One Sarge!! OTFLMAO
Tezbo
soldave
Good to see JT is covering the big issues facing Japan today.
nath
throw the book at him
presto345
My god, what an overkill.
mrhog123
If he goes to jail he will get three hots and a cot. Not a bad trade, ne?
jpopexpress
Kudos for this one - this gave me a good laugh! (And I wonder what hotdog-sucking champ Kobayashi-san would have to say about this! Haha - again thanks for this one- LOL) :)
jpopexpress
Hey me too - I'll buy that dude one rice ball haha :p
bdiego
Why is this news? Oh right we're in a look-for-trite-recession-anecdote frenzy these days, carry on.
BBLeo
Another unemployed and take my word this is only beginning of 2009. If he stole from me 'rice ball' I wouldn't call police but will give him some other food, and than will kick him out from store. Why bother calling police when person hasn't got a job and money? I'm sure that next time he will walk instead of taking train.
BBLeo
Next time he should grab a small bowl of soup, drink it quick, and evidence will be washed out.
WMD
Oh wow, crime of the century!
ca1ic0cat
right after that he was going to park his bicycle illegally...
blackstarrr2003
Greedy bastard!!! throw as shoe at him...