At around 1:55 p.m. on Aug 28, Takashi Fujita, 69, was attempting to leave a home improvement center in Nasushiobara City, Tochigi Prefecture while carrying a total of seven unpaid-for items valued at 11,700 yen including some mosquito coils, a parakeet, and three hamsters.
That might seem like an odd shopping list for a trip to the Home Depot, but in Japan it is not an uncommon practice for home improvement stores to also deal in a wide range of pets from puppies to parrots.
A 53-year-old clerk spotted the elder gent and confronted him. In the ensuing struggle, Fujita is accused of inflicting injuries to the clerk, such as scratches to his thumb, but still the clerk managed to apprehend him and turn him over to the authorities.
Fujita now faces charges of robbery resulting in bodily injury which he denies on the grounds that he intended to pay for the items afterward.
The real mystery, however, is why he choose to steal the pets — including an animal with the capacity for crying “help” no less. Luckily, the police wondered too and asked Fujita, who casually explained that he was going to feed them to his pet cat.
The suspect’s motive was met with both horror and disbelief from the internet at large.
“Gross!”
“He’s lost it.”
“Most home improvement centers do sell cat food too.”
“Was he planning on cooking them first, or does he like carcasses lying around the house?”
“Maybe he’s an aspiring magician but was too shy to admit it.”
“Even if the guy was going to pay for it, it should still be a crime.”
“Who thinks he was planning to eat them himself?”
“Just buy the cat some chicken.”
One lingering question remains whether he went in with the intention of getting the animals for his cat, or was he in there for the other stuff and the parakeet just happened to catch his eye, causing him to think, “You know who would really like that?”
Source: Yomiuri Online, Itai News
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2018/09/02/tochigi-man-arrested-for-shoplifting-animals-from-hardware-store-to-feed-to-his-cat/
11 Comments
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WA4TKG
I guess it's better than chopping off the heads of kittens, as has done before, or his own cat.
Silvafan
The cat is the true loser in this story.
Disillusioned
No need to worry about the cat. It will be taken to a shelter and euthanised within a fortnight.
Thi8s old joker has definitely lost the plot. I hope his sentence includes some kind of mental counselling.
Segador
Well, i really hope someone takes care of the cat. I hate to think of the cat abandoned alone in a house somewhere, unable to leave and diying of hunger.
David Varnes
Well, the cat's out of the bag on his particular hamster skeletons in the closet.
Harry_Gatto
Let's hope someone else does while he's away.
Scrote
He was going to feed his cat mosquito coils?
"Fingers" Fujita won't be feeding his cat anything from his jail cell.
Aly Rustom
That's new.
Gee. I wonder why..