Talk about a Friday news dump!
As much as I love reporting on anime news here on the J-List Blog, sometimes a story makes national news in Japan that is just so… quaint that I have to share it with everyone. So here’s your brand new sentence of the day; the Saitama police chief is being investigated for stealing five rolls of toilet paper. Let’s repeat that for those of you in the back… the police chief of Saitama got drunk, stole toilet paper from a private facility, is now being investigated, and will possibly be charged.
As originally reported by Asahi, the story goes that one day Kei Tanaka was drinking heavily at home on his day off, as one is prone to do in the safety of their own private homes. However, once the evening came around Tanaka decided to keep the party rolling and headed out into the city where he continued to drink to the point that he got a bad rumble in his tummy, which caused him to need to relieve himself. So far there’s nothing really wrong with this story, besides maybe some public intoxication, which is really a pretty minor offense.
Unfortunately for Tanaka, this is where things took a downward turn. After he was done relieving himself, he noticed extra rolls of toilet paper had been stacked there by the staff. Five of them, in fact. Now, we’ll likely never know what caused the good police officer to turn to a life of crime, perhaps he just had a devil on his shoulder whispering in his ear. Whatever his motive, he decided to help himself to the excess toilet paper and headed out with his arms full. He was then spotted by another mall patron who alerted security, who then informed the local police box, who actually took the time to investigate and discover that indeed, Tanaka had stolen the toilet paper and apprehended him.
As punishment for his actions, Tanaka has been suspended for 30 days, though rather than face that he opted to take early retirement on the first day. Sadly though, that will not get Tanaka out of trouble as SoraNews24 reported criminal charges are likely to be filed.
Sources: Asahi, SoraNews24
