Police in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, said Monday they are investigating a series of strawberry thefts on Sunday morning. The strawberries were about to be shipped to bakeries for use in Christmas cakes.
According to police, at around 7 a.m. on Sunday, a strawberry farmer found that his vinyl greenhouse was torn up and his "Tochiotome", Tochigi's signature strawberry brand, had been stolen, NTV reported. Also, other farms in the area reported similar thefts. Police said that a total of 25 kilograms of strawberries were stolen, worth about 60,000 yen.
© Japan Today
20 Comments
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Yubaru
When strawberries cost about the same as an ounce of gold here it's kind of easy to understand the attraction to thieves.
Better security next time?
SenseNotSoCommon
Was the thief green?
Himajin
His heart is full of unwashed socks, he's got garlic in his soul...
Wc626
When the police locate the suspect(s) the arrest will be easy, they already have the "fruit" of the crime.
zones2surf
Sounds like someone needed some oseibo gifts on the cheap!
pudus
Strawberries and Christmas?
just raid the xmas cake yak brothels , they're full of strawberries.
mitoguitarman
That's a low blow. Farmers work so hard.
Bartholomew Harte
Not exactly the crime of the Century but at least the article was ripe!
igloobuyer
Strawberries don't go on Christmas cakes anyway. Marzipan and icing does.
Aly Rustom
Not really. Watch the documentary Sour Strawberries and how the farmers abuse the "trainees" from poor countries making them work 365 days a year. The name came from a strawberry farm that worked its chinese laborors 365 days a year so no sympathy here for the farmer.
My guess is that the culprit is a trainee trying to get back at his slave driver. If that turns out to be true remember you heard it here first.
Sensato
Apparently the thief broke into the greenhouse and actually picked all of the strawberries himself.
Anyway, this involves a theft of 60,000 yen (about US$500) worth of strawberries. I don't see why the Japanese media regarded this as newsworthy. There must have been countless thefts last week where the value stolen was much higher.
Here is the TV news report on this: http://www.news24.jp/articles/2015/12/20/07317843.html
Davnetcat
Well fine, boycotting strawberries for Christmas.
Goodlucktoyou
People eat food from next to Fukushima for Xmas? God bless the children.
Novenachama
Maybe this strawberry farmer could have prevented people from stealing his strawberries. So depending where you're located, what resources are available and how much you have to spend the cheapest way to play to psychology is to put up a decent quality sign stating that the greenhouse are monitored by a CCTV camera. Then set-up a suitable dud box on a wall nearby pointed at the plants, that is designed to look like a CCTV camera. You also need to make taking the plants undesirable and noisy as possible. Rig-up rustling objects, tin-cans or any type of rigging which would mean if the plant is taken it becomes very noisy, and becomes too badly damaged to be usable to the theft. If you have a bigger budget, installing an actual CCTV camera, wiring up the plant with custom trip-wire alarm system that trigger anything from a sound of a dog barking to a wailing alarm or even a motion sensor sprinkling system that spray the plant. I would postulate the plant is taken by a repeat offender. EG the same person. Gathering the evidence of their wrong-doing and reporting it to the police would probably also resolve the matter as well.
Mocheake
This is berry berry bad.
Pukey2
Christ, butter shortage, now no strawberries. Wait for the sugar problem to hit Japan. People will be eating mudcakes soon.
Fadamor
Bah! HUMBUG! (munch munch) Tasty, though!
Barrel Organ
They do taste nice, don't they? : )
nath
The Grinch perhaps? Still, theft is very bad. Didn't the perpretrator think of all the little kids looking forward to their Christmas cake? Even schools are serving Christmas cake for lunch on Friday. Coal in his stockings this year!!
wtfjapan
That's a low blow. Farmers work so hard. not without those free subsidies from hardworking taxpayers they dont.