Indoor Shoe Maniac Arrested Again with 5000 Pairs of Shoes in Home

It was an unprecedented theft case that even the investigators were astonished.

On July 29, a suspect, Shochiku Shina, 43, of Shinden, Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, was arrested by the Chiba Prefectural Police on suspicion of theft and other crimes for stealing 14 pairs of school shoes from an elementary school in Kumamoto City.

This is the second time the suspect has been arrested, having also been arrested on July 8 for stealing 29 pairs of indoor shoes from another elementary school in Kumamoto City. In March this year, he made a two-day and three-night “expedition” from his home in Chiba Prefecture to Kumamoto City, and broke into an elementary school at the end of the school day. He broke into the elementary school at the end of the school day and stole a pair of indoor shoes from the shoe box. The school building and main gate were unlocked, so it was easy for the suspect to get in and out, but security cameras caught him entering and leaving the school,” said a reporter from a national newspaper.

When the police investigated, the suspect surprisingly stated, “I have 4,000 to 5,000 pairs (of indoor shoes) at home. When the police searched his house, they found approximately 5,000 pairs of slippers, just as he had stated.

They were neatly arranged on the shelves and floors of his home, and those that could not be displayed were stored in cardboard boxes. The suspect lived with his younger brother in a three-story house, but he did not allow his brother into the room where the “collection” was stored. On the suspect’s computer, which was confiscated, there was a history of browsing the class newspaper, which contained a picture of the shoe box where the crime took place. He had checked the entry route in advance via Street View and picked up an elementary school that was easy to get in and out of and easy to steal the shoes before entering the area,” said an investigator.

The owners of the shoes stolen by the suspect were of different genders and grades, but they had one thing in common. The aforementioned investigator continued, “They were used slippers.

The suspect stole only used school shoes. The incident occurred in March. The victims were children who had been trying to wear them out until they went on to higher education or graduated.

What was the suspect thinking as he gazed at his worn-out school shoes at home?