Kenichi Moriai, 31, was unemployed. But after his fighting game-inspired rampage bent on destroying windshield wipers, he wasn’t just out of a job, he was arrested. Again.
On January 28, in Yashio City in Saitama Prefecture, eight trucks in a freight company parking lot had their windshield wipers bent and mangled. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, the total value for the 16 wipers is over $US2000. Hardly a king’s ransom, but the national Japanese media isn’t only running this story because of its sheer oddness, but also because there’s apparently been an epidemic of broken wipers. A mass windshield wiper rampage, if you will.
In Yashio and neighbouring Soka City, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports that there was a windshield bending rampage with over 100 incidents of wipers being damaged or broken off.
Apparently, Moriai would bend windshield wipers late at night, finding his targets in parking lots with little foot traffic. Moriai was brought in for questioning after being spotted by a company employee, arousing suspicions.
“I was sick of playing fighting games.”
“I was sick of playing fighting games,” Moriai told authorities, “and I did this to let out pent-up stress.” Even if he was sick playing fighting games, he says he found game-like pleasure in destroying the windshield wipers. “Besides this, I did a lot more,” he confessed. He doesn’t seem to have actually destroyed a car Street Fighter style (like the guy in this video did).
In late January, Moriai was also arrested for apparently stealing the fire extinguisher in his apartment building. Not sure which fighting game that’s from….
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