Stolen shoe mystery solved at Japanese kindergarten when security camera catches weasel in the act – KSAT San Antonio
Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press
Published:
Updated:
Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press
TOKYO – Police thought a shoe thief was on the loose at a kindergarten in southwestern Japan, until a security camera caught the furry culprit in action.
A weasel with a tiny shoe in its mouth was spotted on the video footage after police installed three cameras in the school in the prefecture of Fukuoka.
Recommended Videos
“It’s great it turned out not to be a human being,” Deputy Police Chief Hiroaki Inada told The Associated Press Sunday. Teachers and parents had feared it could be a disturbed person with a shoe fetish.
Japanese customarily take their shoes off before entering homes. The vanished shoes were all slip-ons the children wore indoors, stored in cubbyholes near the door.
Weasels are known to stash items and people who keep weasels as pets give them toys so they can hide them.
The weasel scattered shoes around and took 15 of them before police were called. Six more were taken the following day. The weasel returned Nov. 11 to steal one more shoe. The camera footage of that theft was seen the next day.
The shoe-loving weasel only took the white indoor shoes made of canvas, likely because they’re light to carry.
“We were so relieved,” Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito told Japanese broadcaster RKB Mainichi Broadcasting.
The children got a good laugh when they saw the weasel in the video.
Although the stolen shoes were never found, the remaining shoes are now safe at the kindergarten with nets installed over the cubbyholes.
The weasel, which is believed to be wild, is still on the loose.
___
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Recommended Videos
Email Newsletters
KSAT RSS Feeds
Contests and Rules
Contact Us
KSAT Internships
Careers at KSAT
Closed Captioning / Audio Description
Public File
Current EEO Report
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Do Not Sell My Info
FCC Applications
If you need help with the Public File, call (210) 351-1200.
At KSAT, we are committed to informing and delighting our audience. In our commitment to covering our communities with innovation and excellence, we incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance our news gathering, reporting, and presentation processes. Read our article to see how we are using Artificial Intelligence.
Copyright © 2024 KSAT.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings.
