Electricity theft in Japan
A story on Mainichi the other day about a man secretly stealing electricity from his neighbor with an extension cord is strikingly similar to another story that made the national news last week.
The incident in question took place in Sasebo City. Here’s a video embed showing Fuji TV’s coverage of the story, complete with a comical cartoon reenactment:
A 49-year-old unemployed man was arrested for entering a neighbor’s house and stealing electricity to power a rice cooker. The electricity in the man’s house had been recently shut off due to nonpayment, so he resorted to electricity theft to cook a meal for himself.

His plan failed when his actions were noticed by his neighbor, who happened to be in a adjacent room at the time of the break-in. The neighbor called the police, who arrived and found the criminal laying around outside the house. Inspection of the rice cooker revealed that the man had accidentally set it up to heat the rice instead of actually cooking it, so he didn’t even get a chance to enjoy his meal!
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So is this like TheOnion report in Japan, or did this really make the evening news?
Unbelievable…
Japan is a safe country indeed!
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LOL OMG. but yes. Japan is indeed a vast country. I wish I live there
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Sad that Japan residents are apparently so isolated from their neighbors that he couldn’t simple ask? Or that the neighbor wouldn’t be willing to help?
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Suppose a news like this happened in your country. Do you raise the same question?
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http://ask.metafilter.com/39599/How-do-I-keep-my-neighbors-from-stealing-my-power
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25695558/
http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=7915155
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-83332453.html
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-405394.html
Those sad isolated Americans.