A 43-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of theft on Wednesday, accused of stealing four pairs of women’s underwear from an apartment veranda in Utsunomiya City on Feb 1. Police arrested Takao Sudo, a 43-year-old man who lives with his parents in Utsunomiya City, and who ran a website titled “Underwear Collector.”
When police searched his home, they found approximately 1,600 items of underwear in his room, stashed in bags and a suitcase. Sudo told police that he felt relaxed when he surrounded himself with the underwear, and that he had stolen them on about 300 occasions over the past eight years.
© News reports
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tanyurine
Show a picture of the guy and the 1,600 items (got to know what to watch out for [the guy, not the things])
Wakarimasen
Maybe a kind of pension fund in these times of financial distress?
bobcatfish
I think the term "women's underwear" is sexist and misleading. it seems they are just as popular with the fellas.
seesaw
kimochi warui....
Disillusioned
Underwear fetishes, child porn, 30,000+ sucides a year, infanticide, random slashings. Is it just me or is there a pattern here? There seems to be a very large percentage of seriously dimented people in Japan. Or, is it just culture?
likeitis
I see you have not lost your gift for gross over-exaggeration. Might I suggest a comparative analysis of the population percentage of demented people in other countries, so that you can get a handle on the fact that Japan is a lot like every other country in that respect?
sensei258
The real crime is that he's 43 and still lives with his parents. He's probably unemployed too.
BBLeo
This guy needs a very ugly female shrink with little dirty underwear on her desk, perhaps he will give up his hobby. I remember JT published last year stories like this one. Is he new guy to the game? When you think of it he should go with 1,600 items 'every weekend to 'flee market' and he could make few yen for his meals. I wonder what his favored color is. Were 1,600 items assorted colors?
Disillusioned
likeitis - My statement was not meant to be a comparison. Only an observation based on facts. If you are so concerned with comparisons I'd be interested in knowing your findings. Have a good day!
nath
I am amazed that they said approximately 1,600 - and didn't give an exact count. How are they going to press charges with "a lot"?
medievaltimes
Japan is not like every other country in that respect.
In my experience Japan is at the top of the list for sex crimes, fetishes, groping, mentally ill people wandering in public without a guardian, number of people that have few interpersonal social skills, number of hostess bars, depictions of rape in comics/magazines, love hotels, looking at porno on the rush hour trains and on and on....
All countries ARE NOT the same. Countries have different values, norms and laws. They all have their good points and bad points. This is one of Japan's bad points.
gaijinboy
That's just it-culture. In a culture where things are very trendy, so is the news. Many of the events we read about come in spurts not because they occurred in spurts, but because the stories are trendy. Many of the events you see here are happening all the time and the news is just jumping on the bandwagon of a trendy story.
kakari
The title must be "Serial robber of women's underwear arrested".
Dennis Bauer
the solution is "living with your parents at 43 should be banned"
electric2004
And his parents did not wonder when he was washing these clothes? Or, even worse, he did not wash them, because he likes it smelly?
telecasterplayer
Disillusioned,
I don't think the numbers bear this out. NationMaster.com has crime stats and Japan isn't even in the top ten in many categories.
nath
Drawers full of drawers.
Okinawamike
electric2004:
If you read it correctly, the statement is that he stole the said underwear from the apartment veranda, I would think this is a clothes line and not just a big pile of "smelly" drawers. There for why would he need to wash them?
Latenights
This is the best euphemism ever! It's up there with all the pervs who take up-skirt photos to "relieve stress".
1,600 - yuk!
mrhog123
Thank God this didn't happen Saitiyama. Seems like everything else happens there.
OneForAll
Never heard of men hoarding panties before coming here. SHITAGIDOROBO: http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=365&pID=387. Pretty harmless but Kinky. Where is Kinky? And there is a place called Kinky.
medievaltimes
Stats are of course useful but do not always present an accurate picture in context. I'm just guessing but it seems to me that crime (or anything of a negative nature) gets under reported or hidden quite a bit in Japan. Heck, if all the groping cases alone would get reported/filed the stats would go through the roof.
I guess it could be a coincidence that in my home country I only saw/heard a small fraction of this kind of stuff going on...but I am guessing it's more than coincidence.
Yelena
I wonder what will be his panishment according to Japanese laws? In Russia he would be probably released.
TokyoGas
Why do I get a picture in my mind of this clown rolling over piles of undies... :(
ca1ic0cat
I don't get it at all. This is one thing where the Japanese seem to have a monopoly on the perversion.
nath
We have our hapless weirdos in America to... Nobody has a monopoly on perversion. Although, the "Underwear Collector" website certainly gives him an edge over others...
sensei258
electric2004 - he had been stealing them after they had been washed and hung outside to dry.
medievaltimes
Every country has weirdos...we all know that. But the point is some have more than others.
Take 100,000 random dudes from Canada, America and Japan. I'll bet you 100 Yen Japan will have more gropers, panty collectors, sexual harrassment, panty sellers, flashers, rapists, pedophiles, stalkers, up skirt picture takers and dudes that read porno in public.
nigelboy
I'll take those over beastiality freaks in U.S./Canada any day.
nigelboy
I'd classify panty collectors, panty sellers, flasher, and up skirt picture takers and dudes that read porno in public as "weirdos" but not the others. And I'll take those aforementioned over beastiality freaks in U.S./Canada any day. Clear enuff for ya?
Moderator: All readers, stay on topic please. references to other countries are not relevant.
medievaltimes
Nigel - You are arguing semantics. And I'm not anti-semantic.
Patricia Yarrow
Hey! Where'd my undies go? They were out on the veranda drying just a moment ago.... :-o
electric2004
Okinawamike, sensei258:
As you said, it might well be that most of the underwear, which he grabbed was washed. But how can you be sure? For example bedding and related items might be just put out into the sunlight. Or it might be that the washing machine of a victim is not inside the house, but in a nearby storage place, as can be for houses in the countryside. Then there might be a basket near the place of the washing machine, under the roof, but still outside, where "not yet clean clothes" are collected. My point is, dirty clothes are collected in a basket and such kind of basket might have been accessible to the thief also.
chubster2009
sick guy I think some of mine are missing too. Perhaps I should phone the PS and describe mine and see if mine are in the bunch. I really liked my Superman ones...
trente_sylphs
I'm all the way in Brooklyn, NY.. some of my panties are missing.. I blame him! ;)