A Japanese man was arrested for the strangest reason.
On October 30, an intruder entered the home of a woman from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, after he found it unlocked. He was what is locally called a “panty thief,” the kind of man who gets a rush from breaking into homes of female victims in order to steal their underwear.
Another man’s collection of 150 stolen underwear | Daily Mail
Unlike the usual kind of panty thief, however, this one had a different course of action. When the woman arrived back home, she did not find her lingerie missing. Instead, she found them washed and hung up to dry. She was certain that she did no such thing before leaving earlier that day.
Netizens shared their shocked reactions on social media. They couldn’t understand the intruder’s intentions, asking, “What was he thinking?” and guessing that his “fetish” was, strangely enough, cleanliness.
What was he thinking? So he’s an underwear fetishist who’s also into cleanliness?
They added that it was such an absurd situation, it was like he was a character in a story.
It’s like one of those fairytales where gnomes do things around your house when you’re not home. This sort of crime is on a plane beyond what my brain can understand. If the circumstances had been different, he’d be a gentleman, but he’s a pervert. Washing underwear instead of stealing it? That’s some high-level perversion of its own. It’s a very specific propensity.
The man was arrested soon after he broke into the woman’s home. Later that same day, a neighbor caught the culprit, a 50-year old man who also lived in the same building, and brought him to the police. He admitted to the crime of breaking and entering as well as washing the victim’s clothes.
I entered [the woman’s] apartment without permission.
— Culprit
Example of a Japanese apartment building
He was placed under arrest for trespassing.
