Police in Kizugawa, Kyoto Prefecture, have arrested a 34-year-old man and his 38-year-old wife on suspicion of shoplifting by hiding items in their 3-year-old daughter’s baby stroller.
According to police, the incident occurred on Aug 28 at a Lego store in a shopping mall, Kyodo News reported. Police said Tokihiro Nakano, a part-time worker, and his wife Ayako, who is unemployed, entered the store with their daughter in her baby stroller. The couple were seen placing two Lego sets priced at 20,108 yen in the baby stroller and then attempting to leave the store without paying.
Police said the couple, who live in Daito, Osaka Prefecture, have admitted to the charge and quoted them as saying they planned to sell the Lego blocks at a recycling shop.
Police said the couple are suspected of shoplifting items for recycling on at least 10 occasions since last October.
© Japan Today
50 Comments
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Legrande
Obviously they are at their wits end trying to make ends meet and were not able to come up with a better financial solution.
They are to blame for settling for shoplifting, and the system which gives scant support to Japanese citizens should also be held accountable.
WA4TKG
Sell the Lego’s? Really?
Mr Kipling
They must have been really starving to want to eat Lego... Just regular thieves, jail them and put the kid up for adoption.
wallace
Theft is a serious crime here.
Redemption
Is the man crippled? Get a job.
Fighto!
Yes - and so it should be. There is no such thing as a "victim-less crime".
Meiyouwenti
“Theft is a serious crime here.”
Is there anywhere else where it is not?
Jay
California.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/san-francisco-shoplifters-theft-walgreens-decriminalized-11634678239
It's a shame this family don't live in "healthy'N' vibrant" San Francisco... they would have gotten off scot free.
Chabbawanga
10 years jail and the child can be put with a new family through the highly effective adoption system in Japan.
wallace
The couple should not get any jail time. Suspended sentences and not separated from their child. Punishment needs to fit the crime.
Chabbawanga
They will. These criminal masterminds nust be made an example of.
NOMINATION
Is it really worth it to pay for gas/tolls from Daito to Kizugawa and back to steal Legos to sell to a thrift store for probably like 3000yen?
wallace
Chabbawanga
Never heard of the punishment that fits the crime.
You know nothing of their circumstances or their lives but are ready to give them harsh punishments for shoplifting.
wallace
No mention in the article about the couple having a car.
Alex
The only thing I find mind-boggling is this: if you're going to shoplift because you don't have enough money to live or care for your child, why wouldn't you shoplift essentials like food or baby items? If you're going around shoplifting toys to re-sell them at a recycle shop, that seems a little suspicious.
Stephen Chin
They thought they were smart?
They did not think they are stupid?
Stupid!
Very!!
nandakandamanda
One of them came up with this idea.
kurisupisu
They were from Osaka but I was in Kyoto today and I have never seen so many old people (homeless?) hanging around food courts and convenience stores-the people look down trodden…
shogun36
10,000 yen lego sets are NOT small. They have fairly large boxes. Did they think no one would see this?
If they were gonna steal, why not steal the smaller sets?
Neurozoo
9 Targets here in the US are closing due to organized retail theft, and 1 couple in Japan is big news. I miss those days, when bike seat theft was national news too.
CS
What a ridiculous comment.
justasking
They’re probably going to blame all the unsolved thefts in the past year to this couple.
ushosh123
Per the article this isn't the first time. And obviously it worked and that's why they are back for more. Not to say they aren't struggling in today's economy.
CaptDingleheimer
Wow, they admitted it just like that? Here in the US, they just say "Idindonuffin!"
enmaai
Manbiki Kazoku
itsonlyrocknroll
Firstly, lets the wait for court reports into this families’ social welfare circumstances.
At least before suggesting 10 years behind bars, resulting a 3-year-old daughter cut off from the loving warmth of natural Mum and Dad.
Questions unanswered, shoplifting in j society is a serious loss of face humiliation. I suggest we are not dealing with J Bonnie and Clyde soon destined to become Japan deadliest outlaws.
Poverty is sometime hidden in society, compassion for genuine hardship must not give way to a harsh cruel retribution.
Shoplifting can result from the foolish belief that such clandestine action provides a short-term remedy ffrom long-term impoverishment/despair.
itsonlyrocknroll
My J neighbors, friends, colleges, family will inviably give a forward honest straight forwards opinion.
Basically the truth.
Lies will always find you out.
This couple actions appear to support that.
itsonlyrocknroll
Yes William_Blake,
Ending Japan’s ‘Hostage Justice’ System
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/30/ending-japans-hostage-justice-system
I resided in Japan, since 2010, although sometime visiting family/business in UK.
I sometime feel, more recently, becoming aware how family has chosen hold back on shopping, sometime what I would consider to be essentials, air con etc. the cost of living is really beginning to bite.
They wont take money, ask for help.
Is it not conceivable this coupe could have not succumbed to the desperate mistaken belief that shoplifting will provide a solution?
opheliajadefeldt
itsonlyrocknrollT....................Lies will always find you out.
Very true, the truth is embedded in ones subconscious mind, where as lies are in the conscious mind, which changes constantly.
CaptDingleheimer
William_BlakeToday
I've read that. But to be honest, I once blew that model apart.
I got arrested in a small city in Tohoku back in 2006. A couple guys started a fight in a karaoke joint, and I finished it. I was arrested for assault and battery and resisting arrest.
They interrogated me for about 4 hours. Slapped me around a bit even. They even tried the 'good' cop thing with a young woman officer. All would say is "I want a lawyer" (in Japanese), look at the floor from across the table, and smirk. That pissed them off.
When I finally got sick of it, I demanded a phone call to the US Embassy. I knew dan well the embassy would tell me to go pound sand, but the cops didn't call my bluff. I think they thought their little police department would be embarrassed in an international incident of some sort. I never got my phone call, but I did get shown the front door. Back out into the night I went. Had a few drinks after that, I did.
KevinMcgue
Lego theft is a big thing in Europe. Not only are the sets valuable, but they can be separated and all the parts sold separately, often for a higher total than the set, meaning they are impossible to trace. Also, a recent economics study found that Lego sets appreciate in value faster than gold.
Aly Rustom
very true
Same here.
Chabbawanga
Read between the lines matey. You dont honestly think I see this couple as masterminds do you?
itsonlyrocknroll
Both Alex, KevinMcgue, have a point that I don't doubt will not be lost on the police enquiry.
Father has his vintage Lego, Meccano, Hornby locomotive train sets, Scalextric all from his childhood lovingly kept at my home, I have the space, Mother and Father from time to time enjoy long afternoons reliving the past.
The vintage models are valuable, Hornby especially so.
I still want to give the couple the benefit of the doubt, from the article information.
Aly Rustom
Well said William. Well said.
wallace
Are you talking about Japanese or foreigners? Most foreigners who have been here for some years know about the legal system and detention even before Ghosn.
garypen
As opposed to what Japanese say when they*re caught? (I don't remember doing such a thing. I was stressed from work. I was drunk. Etc)
wallace
William_Blake
How many Japanese people do you know well? You can't be held for several weeks without being charged.
Strangerland
You certainly can.
Zaphod
I feel sorry for the daughter. At 3 years old, she does not understand what is happening to her now.
John
The child should be taken from them and given for adoption. Adopting parents cannot be worse than them.