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At approximately 2:30 a.m. on March 26 in Nakama City, Fukuoka Prefecture, a man smashed through the fence of a yet-to-be-opened shop, and armed with two lights and a nylon net robbed the establishment of roughly 1.1 million yen in merchandise.
The merchandise in question? None other than the Japanese rice fish, also known as the medaka.
Similar in appearance to a guppy, these fish are renowned for their durability and ability to procreate under even the harshest circumstances. In fact, this fish is the first known vertebrate to have successfully mated in orbit.
Extraterrestrial erotic experimentation aside, these fish also make ideal pets, and depending on the breed they can also sell for high prices. In this case, the victim had been breeding a stock of Japanese rice fish so that on March 31 he could open a store specializing in them called Medaka Ikka or “House of Medaka” in English.
However, what was meant to be a joyous embarkation on a new business turned sour when the victim’s open-air stock was raided in the middle of the night. Luckily, a security camera caught the bandit in action as he managed to impressively scoop up 300 fish in about five minutes.
The owner of the shop was understandably heartbroken after having raised these fish to the best of his ability to service the local Japanese rice fish enthusiast community.
“I think of it more as a kidnapping than a theft,” he told media. “I’m more sad than angry. Because they were stolen in the middle of the night, I can’t sleep at night anymore.”
These particular Japanese rice fish would have sold for about 1,500 to 5,000 yen apiece, so this suspect’s knowledge of the fish’s market value and his skill with a net would suggest the work of a pro.
▼ A news report on the theft.
Concerned netizens who watched the news found themselves wondering why the media bothered to censor the face of such a dangerously smooth criminal at large.
“Why did they cover his face? Showing it would not only help catch him, but maybe help prevent future thefts.”
“Is the guy a minor of something?”
“Did he rob the place with a blue dot on his face?”
“And what’s with the choice of background music?”
“Do you think he’s planning on eating them?”
“Show his face! Let’s bring these boys home!”
“Stupid mass media more worried about covering their butts than catching a fish robber.”
“I feel really bad for the owner. That’s terrible.”
Hopefully justice can be served soon, as police are currently using the camera footage to try and retrace the suspect’s steps.
Either way, we also can’t rule out yakuza involvement either, as strange as it may seem. Organized crime has been branching out into theft of marine biology much more brazenly in recent years.
Source: FNN Prime Online
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2021/04/05/japanese-police-searching-for-man-who-stole-1-1-million-yen-in-tiny-fish/
6 Comments
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Mocheake
Is there an underground medaka black market? Been breeding them for years and didn't even know the English name until now!
Goodlucktoyou
Bejesus, my neighbor gave about 100 last week for free!
Sven Asai
Exactly, you often get a bunch of them completely free from kind people who actually have too many. And then, you guess it, shortly after you have plenty of them yourself and can give in return some to the next people you know. They’re really so common here like everyone’s sweet pets, so usually there’s no need for buying or selling Medaka at all. That case is probably more something internal, a kind of business or collector war in that specialized Medaka breeder and otaku scene. That’s a problem those crazy fans have to solve themselves in their scene or gray zone.
gaijintraveller
That makes them a bit like cats and kittens. Kittens sell for ¥100,000 or more. Many are just dumped. Others are just dumped. Do we see headlines like 5 Kittens values at ¥500,000 Found in Cardboard Box in Park? Why not? I suppose it is because everyone knows that they are valued at far less.
mmwkdw
I agree with the viewers comments, why blackout the face... was it someone recognisable ?
Brian Wheway
I would remove the blue dot, lets see the face of the perpetrator !! let him have his 15 minutes of fame.