crime

Schoolgirl caught stealing dozens of educational books in one night

15 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

On the evening of Oct 29, an 18-year-old high school girl walked into the bookstore in front of JR Akashi Station. After some extensive browsing, she left without purchasing anything, but later returned to the store for her second visit between the hours of 7 and 8 p.m.

This time, something about the way she was moving about the store struck one of the employees as suspicious. When the staff approached the schoolgirl and examined her bag, they found it filled with books that she was attempting to steal. The police were summoned, and the subsequent investigation revealed that she’d already made off with 10 books from her first trip to the store that night, and in total had attempted to steal 25.

So just what sort of ill-gotten goods was the girl after? Manga, like the middle schooler who was arrested as part of a two-person thievery team at another Hyogo bookstore earlier this year? Smutty magazines she was too embarrassed to carry up to the register?

Nope. Among the books she’d stolen was one titled "An Interesting and Easy to Understand Explanation of Exponents and Logarithms," and that was pretty much representative of the rest of her haul. All 25 books she’d taken were study-aids and educational reference books. It’s not like she was planning to resell them at discounted, yet to her pure-profit, prices to her peers, either. When the police arrived and questioned her, she not only admitted to having stolen the books, but said her intent was to use them herself to study with, and that she’d taken them because she doesn’t have the money to buy them with.

While her level of academic enthusiasm is admirable, the total cost of the books she’d taken comes to roughly 36,000 yen, which is beyond what Japanese society is generally willing to write off as an acceptable bending of the law by teenagers. The girl was formally arrested on Oct 30, and while punishment is yet to be handed down, hopefully any court-ordered rehabilitation process will include an orientation at her local public library.

Source: Kobe Shimbun Next via Hachima Kiko

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Unemployed man and teen schoolgirl team up to steal manga, get arrested in Japan

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-- Man pretending to be idol singer producer arrested on charge of kidnapping 14-year-old Tokyo girl

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

15 Comments
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She has her uni entrance exams coming up, and the pressure is clearly on - I can only feel sympathy. But the comment at the end about libraries is a sensible one - as long as libraries are well-stocked with such up-to-date books.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I don't know. Well......sometimes you got to steal the knowledge!

I do agree with Maria. This could be a good opportunity for libraries to get more patrons, and students could learn about less expensive options for studying.

Juku, katakana and so much standardizing testing in Japan is a thorn in the side of the Japanese education system.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

She must have been hungry to learn. Only in Japan would someone get caught shoplifting school books off all things. You can learn just about anything on the interwebs anyway.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

She needs help not retribution.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Give her a job in the bookstore. Then she can earn them!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I doubt she can get school text books in the Library, especially ones she can mark up and take notes in. If this were on a local news station in The States, they might have a way for readers to help her pay for her books.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I'll pay for the books and please release her. I want to help her. Please, give me information about where I can contact both parties and I'm willing pay the 36,000 Yen for the books. Please, drop the charge against this girl. She has made mistake and I hope she will learn from that.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

so her parents will apologize and pay and that'll be the end of it big deal

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Those are some cheap books! 25 for just 36K yen? Some of my math books were 14K yen, each.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

If she has no money for these books, the price of college textbooks will blow her mind if she can afford to go in the first place.

From my personal experience attending a Japanese uni for four years, there weren't that many text books we had to buy. I can only remember buying about half a dozen of them. Most of the time, you'll get hand outs from the lecturer that cover everything. They will sometimes recommend books but those are optional.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This girl does not deserve to be punished .... She deserves a university in Japan to give her a free scholarship to attend college .... If she is so willing to learn then reward her for her efforts .... Give her the tools she needs to learn. The mind is a terrible thing to waste.  Help her become the person she want to be.

This is the kind of student that a good college would want.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@HARRYO I understand your sentiment, and I think the girl should be supported in her efforts to learn, but she still needs to be punished in order to learn that stealing is wrong. Having her do some community service would be good for her.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

25 books? Quite hard to believe.

Library is around every corner in the city.

And dont forget about internet.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

She has her uni entrance exams coming up, and the pressure is clearly on

If she has no money for these books, the price of college textbooks will blow her mind if she can afford to go in the first place.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I don’t think it’s a positive problem we should forgive her because she was eager to learn with stealing educations.

She can be kleptomaniac disorder.

Can proceeding to other items or enjoying a stealing second. Go study to the library around here.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

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