Japanese police are currently scouring the country for a 19-year-old YouTuber. His alleged crime? Stealing snacks and fizzy drinks as well as poking holes in food packaging.
Picture: Narukami 793
And to help pay for his escape, the teen said he sold his Nintendo handheld. Desperate times call for desperate measures!
Since December, a Japanese YouTuber, Narukami 793, has been uploading clips of his alleged thefts. The footage shows that he’s stolen many things.
Like Fanta.
Or, um, Melty Kiss fruity strawberry chocolate.
Or a bag of potato chips. That cost 95 yen, which isn’t even a dollar.
In the videos, which he labels “manbiki” (万引き) or “shoplifting”, he usually shows the store and films himself as he seemingly steals the snacks. His face is not shown in any of his videos. In all the clips, he’s constantly talking, either saying what he’s doing in a blow-by-blow account or providing his own rationale as to why he’s doing it — which seems to show how easy it is to shoplift.
Sometimes, you think he’s going to take several snacks.
Usually, it’s only one.
When not stealing things, he’s allegedly causing mischief like sticking holes in snack packaging with toothpicks or poking holes in packaging (the “mischief” being that another customer might buy the snack and discover the poked hole and the toothpick and complain). That’s why he’s now known as the “toothpick boy.”
The YouTuber has repeatedly uploaded videos of shoplifting in Tokyo, getting tens of thousands of views. His toothpick “prank” video racked up over 800,000 views, while his recent candy bar video netted well over 700,000 views.
In Japan, a 19-year-old is still considered to be a minor. If arrested and found guilty, the assumption is that he’d be tried as a juvenile. Since last month, Narukami 793 also uploaded videos that apparently show his probation officer for previous indiscretions. Perhaps that’s why the police haven’t had much difficulty in figuring out who Narukami 793 is?
Picture: tmoshi0730
Security camera footage has also proved valuable.
TBS reports that a warrant has been issued for his arrest. This story exploded yesterday when the toothpick video went viral. When the police started to get involved, the teen bolted via train and continued uploading videos as he rode the train and walked on train platforms.
“I have 70,000 yen, so I’m going to flee by train,” he said in one video. Seventy thousand yen is $727.
Picture: FNN
“To get money to escape, I sold a Nintendo 3DS and I got this [cash],” he said in one YouTube video (via FNN). He also showed a receipt that said it was a New Nintendo 3DS that he sold it for 11,000 yen ($114).
Picture: FNN
The story has gone national. Police and the media are engaged in a manhunt for Narukami 793 and have been using locations in his YouTube videos in an attempt to find him.
Picture: FNN
However, some videos, it seems, were filmed at locations to throw off the police in their search or uploaded long after he’d left. He’s also been posting new shoplifting videos. Currently, it’s believed he’s in Aichi Prefecture.
Picture: FNN
On the run from the law, Narukami 793 has been also uploading videos of himself checking out news stories about his crimes and looking at YouTube. In one he says, “If you open YouTube, that’s me at the top.”
To recap: the biggest news story in Japan is about a national manhunt for a kid who allegedly steals chocolate bars and pokes holes in snack containers, and puts his petty crimes on YouTube. I’m sure glad nobody is overreacting.
Comments
10 responses to “National Manhunt In Japan For A YouTuber Who Allegedly Stole…Snacks”
theres some ting wong with that
Maybe there’s more to this story. In this day and age you don’t mess with people’s food.
Shoplifting is nothing but interfering with food(introducing foreign objects into sealed packaged food) is serious and blabbing about it online gives other people ideas. Just a toothpick? Why not glass shards? Etc etc. some guys in China were executed for putting melamine in baby food.
A good journalist would ask WHY is this such a big story?
It’s not just the fact that you introduce foreign material into food, you’re also breaking the seal designed to keep food fresh longer. There’s a reason they have the message “Do not consume if this seal or any part of the packaging is damaged.” My guess is (as you said) the shoplifting is just an additional charge and the reason the police are pursuing this guy is because he is actively tampering with food products and putting people in danger because of it.
Massive, industry wide use of poisonous chemicals in staple foods in order to meet the demand of your paternalistic government is somehow a little different to making someone’s food stale for fun.
This is sheer overreaction in true Japanese style. Nothing more.
That toothpick thing was just a real dickhead thing to do…….but I do tend to go for the underdog renegades on the run, so go Narukami 793, run like the wind and be as free as $727 can make you……
$727 can buy a lot in Aichi. They still use the barter system in half the prefecture.
When I was a kid I used to crush all the packaged vol au vents.
There’s so little (overt) crime over there that this is genuinely the only thing the cops have to do.
Awesome country.
Overt crime, I suppose… But Japan has incredibly high rates of sexual harrassment, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, and sex slave trade. Organised crime, domestic violence and sexual violence are huge problems that are summarily ignored.
Judging from those fingernails, I’m pretty sure that’s Voldermort.