Thieving in Japan

Had returned from Malaysia to my ‘cave’ here in Japan in early September, and of course, was overwhelmed by the mountain of piled-up work...

So, there I was, slugging through that mountain on that Saturday and Sunday wondering whether this was the punishment for being away for a vacation...

On the following Monday at 0840 hours, was surprised to see my cap outside my office door...

And became more perplexed when I found the door to be unlocked as I keyed in...

Didn’t take a minute to realize that a thief had broken into my office...

Ooh, 21 years of continuous residence in Japan and this was the first experience of being robbed...

Called my staff members who then rushed to my office...

About half an hour later, three policemen came...

The thief had entered through the ventilation window, which I had left partially open...

The police combed my untidy room for fingerprints and shoeprints...

One of them asked... is this room always like this? Messy?

Me: Yes...

Policeman: How then, do you know if something is stolen?

Me: Of course I know!!

That rascal of a thief wore gloves, apparently... and he seemed like he knew what he wanted...

The loot included the Nikon D70 digital camera (oooh, this is painful...)

He knew what he wanted because he took the dedicated D70 battery from one of my drawers... and the battery was actually inside a pouch...

Plus, the battery charger... funny he pulled off the cord and took just the unit...

And, 3 pieces of 1 gigabit compact flash cards...

Plus, a video/CD player and an Epson Projector...　grrrr...

Still, odd that the idiot did not take the cables for these either...

Anyway, two more policemen came... and took pictures of the scene while requesting yours truly to point to the spots where the goods were removed...

I must say that they were pretty professional and prompt...

One stayed back to write the report on my behalf and had me verified and signed it...

At 1115 hours, I was able to resume my banging at that mountain of work again...

Back home that evening over dinner, my missus decreed, nose held high, and both arms on hips... ‘Now, no more buying of cameras, ok?’

Grrrr...