Thieves get tempted by all sorts of valuables but who would care enough to pull off a series of robberies related to urinal drain grates?
Police in the city of Sapporo are searching far and wide for the crook behind 16 heists of urinal drain grates. Keep in mind that these aren’t new grates from hardware stores that can be sold in the market. They are dirty, smelly pieces of metal resting at the bottom of urinals in public park restrooms. Hundreds of people have peed on them so it’s not exactly a gold mine.
In a YouTube video by the Sapporo city government, there are examples of some of the types of grates that have been stolen. The criminal doesn’t seem to care about a particular type as he took grates with both long slots and round openings.
In late May, there were thefts in Sapporo’s Higashi Ward where 15 urinal grates were stolen and another one was taken in Kita Ward around the same time.
Urinal grate thefts aren’t hard to pull off since the grates can be easily removed by hand. Most people don’t want to steal the urinal grates because it’s gross, but some criminals are full of surprises where they find value in the undesirable hardware.
Stealing these grates isn’t a lucrative business opportunity either since a brand new one only costs approximately $7. The thrill of stealing may be more enticing than the monetary gain.
Sapporo police are requesting the public to report any suspicious persons or missing grates, in hopes of locating this mystery suspect.
Source: https://youtu.be/4jpH3hMZpow