Sunday, February 17, 2013

Nobody steals wood in Japan

This is a photo of a wood warehouse near my home on a Sunday afternoon. It's closed, has been since Saturday or maybe even Friday. Can you see anything to stop all that wood being stolen? No you can't because there's nothing. This has puzzled me for over a year.


There is a rickety wooden fence pulled in front of the trucks but the 1000s of Euros of wood and who knows what else they sell is sitting right out there with no security whatsoever. How is this possible? It's not a busy street and they don't close it up any further at night time.

A few theories:

  • They are paying the right people and criminals know they'll lose a finger (or more) if they try stealing from it? Or maybe they are the right people.
  • There are actually no criminals in Japan. This can't be true, otherwise there'd be nothing to blame on immigrants :)
  • The police are incredibly vigilant and effective...
  • There is no market for stolen building materials.

Is there anywhere else in the world you could do this and expect to find everything still there on Monday morning? Switzerland?