crime

Thieves steal 60,000 persimmons from Gifu orchard

40 Comments

Gifu prefectural police are investigating the theft of 60,000 persimmons from an orchard last week. 

The high-grade Fuyu variety of persimmons, stolen from about 400 trees, were worth around 3 million yen in total, Sankei Shimbun quoted police as saying.

The 63-year-old grower called police to report the theft on Oct 18. He told local media that he last inspected his orchard on Oct 11 and doesn’t know when the fruit was stolen.  

Police said the branches of the trees had been neatly snipped off and believe the fruit was stolen over several nights.  

The National Police Agency says that there has been an increase in unsolved thefts of premium fruit in several prefectures over the past year, including cherries in Yamagata, apples in Iwate and pears in Saitama.

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40 Comments
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Thieves steal 60,000 persimmons from Gifu orchard

How to store 60 thousands persimmons?

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Tens of millions of yen in street value. These kind of things can destroy communities, especially when the children are exposed to it.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

The National Police Agency says that there has been an increase in unsolved thefts of premium fruit in several prefectures over the past year, including cherries in Yamagata, apples in Iwate and pears in Saitama.

Those crimes must have been organized and well-prepared involving several individuals. They must have ensured underground markets for mass sell-out.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

No SV footage this time so perhaps the PD will have set a trap to catch the culprits orange-handed?

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I've said it before and I will say it again.

Get a noisy dog.

Set up a dog house or run in the middle of your orchard.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Approximately 800 Kaki can be laid out on one tatami mat, so in actuality, 60,000 would not take up too much space.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

That sucks, that farmer probably put a lot of work into raising them and now some scumbag has robbed him of an entire year’s income. Hope they can catch whoever is behind it.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

I have never seen an Americans who said he liked persimmons.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

JA might have given the farmer 1 yen for each fruit so 60,000 yen loss…

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Get a noisy dog.

Set up a dog house or run in the middle of your orchard.

I personally agree with dogs or CCTVs installed. Yet farmers may be reluctant if the solutions are more costly than the economic damages (worth 3 million yen in this case above). I'm afraid that thieves are fully aware of this dilemma, targeting something of moderate values lest police get serious.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Poor farmer. - “North” Americans @vanityofvanities from Canada, through the U.S’s “New England”, Texas and Mexico have a wide variety of persimmons native to the continent. Some are sweet, some are bitter and need to be dried or cooked the be eaten. The waxy skin and big pits can put some off. Like teaching Japanese children to enjoy a variety of foods, persimmons are an acquired taste.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

"...some are bitter and need to be dried or cooked the be [sic] eaten."

The be eaten? What is your intended meaning?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

That's a lot of persimmons to be stolen . . . probably a lot of thieves made off with . . . domestic crime or international?

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

That’s a lot of picking. Who’s crazy enough to pull 60,000 fruit? That stuff will go bad quick.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

to be… *@3Rensho …**to be*… was the intended typing

(faulty interpretive text, perhaps?)

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

The wholesale price is a lot more than ¥1 per persimmon. They ripen very quickly unless in cold storage.

> In Japan I have farming contacts with a prize winning orchard.

The price the wholesaler pays?

In a good year 2-3 yen?

I have picked and carried persimmons to JA and that 1 yen price (I stated) was what the grower received, several years ago.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Seem to have missed that episode of Mythbusters but that kaki-To-tatami ratio does seem “plausible”:

*- **@5:27pm: ****Approximately 800 Kaki can be laid out on one tatami mat, so in actuality, 60,000 would not take up too much space.”*

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Insurers @Reckless will be able to estimate the number of berries missing by the number of twigs that were cut off.

A persimmon is actually a berry that comes from the edible fruit trees in the genus, Diospyros which has been fondly referred to as the “Divine Fruit.” Native to China, the persimmon has been cultivated for thousands of years.

https://www.farmersalmanac.com

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Get some guard dogs, a Dobermann will put and end to all these thefts in no time, with lots of body parts and arrests too.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@vanityofvanitiesToday  05:40 pm JST

I have never seen an Americans who said he liked persimmons.

I am from NY and never had one until I came to Japan and I love them, skin and all. Sometimes hard are great and other times gooey sweet. But I need them cold. Go great with Reishu/Cold Sake

The Mrs. Hates them

2 ( +5 / -3 )

I have never seen an Americans who said he liked persimmons.

If you looked at their diet, you'd understand why fruit and vegetables are not liked.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Why on earth persimmons. I'd steal figs, cherries, apricots ...

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Get some guard dogs, a Dobermann

Even a small dog would raise would noise.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sadly it wasn’t a fruitless exercise for the criminals but was for the poor farmer…

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is Japan! Please leave them for, believed it’s called “shūkatsu“ season, when the best unpicked fruit go through a traditonal “naitei“ process. Leftovers, or ‘rejected fruit’, are usually put in cold storage or, just ‘have to find there own way’ to the table.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

It's near Nagoya . . . .

0 ( +0 / -0 )

As an American, I love "kaki". Could get them in Europe as well.

And as others have said a good dog or two. German Shepards would work great and they are good dogs with good temperament.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If the guy had a guard dog they would have nicked that too.

I blame Facebook.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Kaki are great, my tree this year is loaded, I eat as many as I can, leave ones up top for the birds, they come once they are a bit over ripe & feast on them. At night i have found hakobishin in the tree eating them. I toss a few on the ground that have gotten too soft or downright mushy, the tanuki like them!

So I dont mid=nd sharing but dont want any a-holes nicking them!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Some things in this story don’t add up. By the farmer’s own admission, he last checked his precious crop a whole week before he reports the theft. Presumably, that 3 million yen (equating to ¥50 apiece) is the insurance value, probably a lot more than he’d get selling to the local wholesaler. Given their woeful record of paying out huge sums for dubious claims, you’d have to wonder how seriously the insurance company will investigate the fraud angle.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Make some good jelly

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It just goes to show you that people will, literally, Steal ANYthing.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

They stole them because of the false worth placed on them. There are persimmons rotting by the thousands on trees in any given town come the end of the season and no one bothers to even harvest them for personal use, let alone to sell, and thieves won't bother. Those seem to be "worthless", but are the same fruit (granted, they are not modified to be seedless, and some are astringent). Drop the price, lower the theft.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

The National Police Agency says that there has been an increase in unsolved thefts of premium fruit in several prefectures over the past year, including cherries in Yamagata, apples in Iwate and pears in Saitama.

The Size of the thefts would take time and effort to breakdown and sell in numbers that would not arouse suspicion, so I think it is very likely that the crops were shipped abroad the next day. China couldn't pay for it's rice it stole from Myanmar and they have no food crops due to flooding. I would suggest the police and coastguard check ships heading to China within a 24 hour period of the theft.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Fault of Japanese government for accepting untrustworthy people from outside. Japanese people will suffer as long as Japanese government kees up these foolish policies.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

3RENSHOOct. 23  06:06 pm JST

"...some are bitter and need to be dried or cooked the be [sic] eaten."

The be eaten? What is your intended meaning?

The meaning is obvious to everyone else here except you it seems.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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