Somebody retains stealing urinal drain grates in Japan that value lower than $5 every, and the police can't work out why

• A spate of urinal drain grate thefts has struck the Japanese metropolis of Sapporo.
• Not less than 38 drain covers have been pinched by an unknown thief, native media reported.
• The lids value lower than $5 every, and police don’t know why anybody needs to steal them.

The police in Sapporo, Japan, are baffled by a mysterious string of thefts involving urinal drain covers.

Not less than 38 drain grates from 16 public bogs went lacking from Could 16 to 30, reported nationwide paper Yomiuri Shimbun, citing metropolis officers.

A few of the grates have been changed on June 1, however the lids, which cowl drain holes in urinals, began disappearing once more every week later, the outlet reported. Even the toddlers’ urinals in ladies’s bogs weren’t spared, Yomiuri Shimbun reported. 

A number of key patterns within the thefts have emerged. The bogs have been all positioned near Sapporo’s Okadama Airport, and the thefts occurred on weekdays, per Yomiuri Shimbun.

However authorities don’t know why anybody would wish to pilfer urinal drain grates. The value of 1 lid is round $4.80, Asahi Shimbun reported.

“Why are you stealing this?” a metropolis official questioned aloud when chatting with the Asahi Shimbun.

Police are investigating the disappearances as a theft, and have despatched officers to patrol the realm, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

The general public bogs — being bogs — did not have safety cameras, so investigators should depend on footage taken close by, per the outlet.

Residents advised the outlet they’re pissed off by the thefts.

“I do not perceive the explanation in any respect. Please cease doing this on the public restroom,” mentioned a 69-year-old man in Higashi Ward, per Yomiuri Shimbun.

In the meantime, police within the metropolis of Toyota in Aichi prefecture have been in Could looking for somebody who stole a flushing deal with from a bathroom, rendering it unusable.

And in 2021, a 26-year-old workplace employee in Funabashi metropolis was arrested on expenses of stealing whole rest room bowls from homes to promote at second-hand shops.

The Sapporo police division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark despatched by Insider.