TOKYO - Crime really doesn't pay.
Hoping to nip a growing trend in the bud, authorities have charged a Tokyo man with allegedly stealing old newspapers from a trash disposal site, officials said Wednesday.
The haul was allegedly worth 100 yen (US$1).
The suspect, whose name has not been disclosed, was spotted by the police stealing the old newspapers early Aug. 20 and taken in for questioning. The case was sent to the prosecutors last week, said Takahiko Sasaki, a waste recycling official for the Tokyo ward where the incident occurred.
The man is the first to be prosecuted under new laws in the ward that ban anyone from removing recyclable materials from designated, streetside trash disposal sites, Sasaki said.
Sasaki said the value of newspaper — and the number of people stealing it from disposal sites — has risen since last year due to increased demand in China. It may also reflect the growing ranks of poor in Japan hit by this country's weak economy.
He said the ward has stepped up police patrols of trash disposal sites and putting up yellow posters warning that stealing old newspapers is a crime.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20031002/ap_on_fe_st/japan_petty_theft
Hoping to nip a growing trend in the bud, authorities have charged a Tokyo man with allegedly stealing old newspapers from a trash disposal site, officials said Wednesday.
The haul was allegedly worth 100 yen (US$1).
The suspect, whose name has not been disclosed, was spotted by the police stealing the old newspapers early Aug. 20 and taken in for questioning. The case was sent to the prosecutors last week, said Takahiko Sasaki, a waste recycling official for the Tokyo ward where the incident occurred.
The man is the first to be prosecuted under new laws in the ward that ban anyone from removing recyclable materials from designated, streetside trash disposal sites, Sasaki said.
Sasaki said the value of newspaper — and the number of people stealing it from disposal sites — has risen since last year due to increased demand in China. It may also reflect the growing ranks of poor in Japan hit by this country's weak economy.
He said the ward has stepped up police patrols of trash disposal sites and putting up yellow posters warning that stealing old newspapers is a crime.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20031002/ap_on_fe_st/japan_petty_theft